Rise of the Forgotten
by Proud to be Plug
Summary: A stolen sacred item. A rising ancient power. Ghosts from the past and dark plans for the future. Just an average few days for Nico di Angelo, son of Hades.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Welcome to my first multi-chapter fic. Took a while to get this together, what with story-plotting and such, but here it is. Please review if you have the time, and if the characters are even a little OOC please let me know. Now, bon reading!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. Tis all for fun. **

Rise of the Forgotten.

Chapter 1: Taxi Service

The day Nico di Angelo got his first quest began much like any other.

He had been doing a tour of the West Coast of America, using his shadow-travel ability to check out the film studios of Hollywood (he'd always been into movies), and had chosen to spend the night in an abandoned back lot. There was quite a few props lying around, and he managed to find himself a bed.

Now, you might wonder why he didn't just stay in a motel. It wasn't like he didn't have any money, being the son of the god of wealth and all.

No, Nico slept like this because he found it a lot more interesting than booking into a boring old motel. And as a son of the Big Three, he was hooked on keeping his life interesting, mainly because it distracted him from the sense of lacking he felt, the sense of emptiness.

So that's how Nico found himself on an extremely battered old prop bed, being awoken by a Scythian Dracaena poking him in the ribs with a sword.

"Urghh," he groaned, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. He paused to survey the creature that had disturbed him. The snake-woman standing by his bed was of the standard armour-clad, Typhon-ugly, sword-toting variety. She was also holding his sword, which he had, rather thoughtlessly, dropped on the ground next to the bed the night before.

"What do _you_ want?" he snapped. If there was one thing he hated, it was fighting monsters just after waking up.

"You have the sssssmell of death upon you," the creature hissed, "You will make a fine meal."

Nico rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, sorry to disturb your breakfast plans," he said drily, glancing around. Luckily, he, the monster, and, more importantly, his sword, were in shadow. "But I don't fancy being made into a son of Hades sandwich special," he finished, now slipping off the bed.

"Your protesstss are futile," said the creature dramatically, "You are unarmed, and without Sssstygian iron on your perssson, you cannot shadow-travel away. You are mine!"

Nico yawned. "Yeah, yeah," he said, working out his plan, "Whatever. But before you kill me painfully, let me ask you, why did you wake me up?"

The snake-woman paused, looking slightly puzzled, before answering. "I wished to see the fear on your face before I strip the flesh from your bones, filthy godling!"

Nico grinned. The Hecate children back at camp had taught him a basic monster repelling spell in return for him giving them some Stygian crystals for their potions. The spell protected him while he slept, and made any approaching monster have an inexplicable urge to see the fear on his face as they killed him, thus causing them to wake him up.

The Dracaena raised her sword and Nico's. "Now, sssspawn of Hadessss," she declared, "Prepare to meet thy father one more time!"

She lunged at Nico's head in a double overhead strike. Nico ducked, avoiding head-loss. Then, before the monster could strike again, he snapped his fingers. His sword, still clutched in his opponent's claw, turned to pure shadow, which flowed out of the monster's hand and into Nico's. The Dracaena stumbled back in shock, watching the shadow re-form into Nico's sword

"That's not possssible," she hissed in astonishment, "You would need steel from the Styx to control the shadows."

Nico reached into the pocket of his jeans, and withdrew a sparkling Stygian crystal, hanging on a small chain.

"I'm the King of Ghosts," Nico replied seriously, "I'm _always_ prepared."

With that, he jabbed his sword under the monster's guard and stabbed through her armour like it was paper, plunging the strip of Stygian steel deep into the creature's chest.

The dracaena cried out in pain, collapsing as she withered away.

"Beware, di Angelo," she croaked, "The ancient mother will rise. You will be destroyed."

And with that cheery farewell, the snake-woman dissipated into nothingness, banished to the Underworld.

Nico bent down to pick up his sword, considering the monster's words.

"Ancient mother…" he muttered thoughtfully, brushing the yellow monster dust off his blade. "What does that mean?"

He shrugged to himself. "Probably nothing," he decided, as he sheathed his sword. "Monsters. They're always looking for a leader."

He turned around to gather his few belongings, and nearly jumped out of his skin.

Floating above the bed was an image of Chiron. As Nico looked closer he realised it was an Iris-message.

"Chiron!" Nico exclaimed, "You startled me!"

The centaur chuckled. "Yes, I see that," he said, "And what were you muttering about just now?"

Nico proceeded to explain what had happened.

"Interesting," murmured Chiron.

"You don't think it's Gaia, do you?" asked Nico worriedly. The Giant War had ended a while back, but it seemed unlikely that Gaia would be waking again so soon.

"No, I don't think so," replied Chiron slowly, "But still, we must pay heed to this."

Nico shrugged, already moving on. "Yeah. Whatever. Anyway, why are you IM-ing me? There isn't any new war starting up, I hope?"

Chiron came out of his reverie. "Ah, no, Nico," he said, "I'm contacting you because a… matter has arisen, and you are the only one I know who can help."

Nico's curiosity was piqued at this. "Okay, I'm listening." he said.

Chiron sighed. "You probably won't like this, but I need you to pick up a potential half-blood and bring them to camp."

Nico frowned. He'd picked up half-bloods on occasion before, but usually only when he was at camp already. "How come Percy or Annabeth can't do it?" he asked, slightly grumpily.

"Well, you see," Chiron paused, searching for the right word, "There's something _different_ about this half-blood."

Nico snorted. "Yeah, tell me something I don't know. All half-bloods are _different_. Chiron, so you'll have to give me a bit more to work with."

Chiron sighed again. "This half-blood has a very indistinct scent, however his aura, from what the satyr assigned to him can tell, is very strong."

Nico was starting to get it. "And since I can see auras, you want me to pick him up and do some magic aura-reading so you can find out more."

Chiron nodded. "Exactly."

Nico groaned. "You sure the satyr wasn't just getting his wires crossed or something? I mean, satyrs' aura-reading ability is pretty meagre at best."

"No, I am quite sure," replied Chiron, "There is definitely something unusual about this child, even for a demigod."

"Alright, then, I'll do it," Nico said reluctantly, "Where do I have to go?"

Chiron glanced at a clipboard, and replied, "He is at Boone High School in New York. You will meet the satyr looking after the boy at the school, at 1:30 this afternoon."

Nico nodded. "'Kay, and what's the kid's name and age?"

"His name is Cyrus Wright and he is thirteen."

"Huh. So right on the claiming age, then?"

"Yes. In fact, he should have been claimed by now," said Chiron.

Nico sat down on the bed heavily. "I always get the hard ones, don't I?"

Chiron smiled. "I'll leave you to it," he said, the rainbow message fading. "Best of luck." And with that he was gone.

Nico scowled to himself. "Yeah," he muttered, gathering his sword and backpack, "Never good when he says that."

And so the son of Hades plunged into the shadows, enjoying the cold sensation of rushing through the darkness.

~P~

Nico emerged from a shadowy corner in an alleyway adjacent to his charge's school. He glanced at his battered watch. It was only 11:30, so he opted to go get some breakfast, and have a walk around the area.

The next couple of hours were pretty uneventful, and he arrived early to the meeting place. After what seemed like forever, a nervous-looking kid wearing the typical satyr disguise approached him.

"Nico di Angelo?" asked the satyr, who was somewhat shorter than Nico, and was chewing on a stick of celery.

Nico rolled his eyes. "No, I'm James Dean," he replied sarcastically, "Obviously I'm Nico."

The satyr nodded. "I'm Bob. Now, I believe Chiron has -"

"Hold up a sec," broke in Nico.

Bob the satyr paused. "What?" he asked, slightly irritated.

Nico laughed. "It's just…a satyr named _Bob_?"

The satyr in question scowled. "If I had a drachma for every time someone said that… Not _all_ satyrs have to have names beginning with "G," you know."

Nico nodded, still smirking slightly. "Alright," he said, "Anyway, you're right, Chiron filled me in this morning."

Bob adjusted his baseball cap, making sure his small horns were covered. "Yes, but what Chiron probably didn't tell you is that there is a monster here, getting ready to attack Cyrus."

Nico frowned. "But Chiron said the kid's scent isn't strong, unless…" Nico paled slightly, realising how this little pick-up job was about to get a lot more complicated.

Bob went on mercilessly. "You see, the monster that's here is a high-level creature of the Underworld, one of the few monsters than can sense auras."

"A Fury." breathed Nico.

Bob nodded silently, looking grim.

Nico groaned loudly, earning himself a couple of funny looks from passers-by.

"It's probably Alecto, too," he muttered, half to Bob and half to himself. "First I get woken up by a Scythian Dracaena; now I have to sneak a half-blood out from under the hooked beak of one of my father's most ruthless minions."

"Sorry? What was that about a Dracaena?" asked Bob, puzzled.

Nico ignored him, hopping off the wall where he'd been perched and starting to pace up and down.

"And once I've done that, I'll have to do some aura-reading," he grumbled, "Which will more than likely drain me severely, and then I'll have to shadow-travel the kid to camp, and _you_!" he abruptly turned to Bob "You'll want a lift, too, won't you?"

"Um, yeah, but N-Nico," Bob stammered.

Nico ploughed on. "Yeah! And I'm not a friggin' taxi service, ya know! And then I'll be exhausted and the kid will be asking loads of questions and -"

"Nico, listen -"

"No, _you_ listen," snapped the now extremely irate son of Hades. "And _then_ I'll have to give the little dope the "demigod talk," and _then_ I'll have -"

"NICO!" shouted Bob desperately.

Nico finally paused in his rant. "What?"

Bob shook his head in agitation. "Chiron rented a car for you, 'cause he knew you'd be tired from shadow-travelling. And he said you don't have to do the aura-reading until you get to camp."

"Oh," said Nico, feeling slightly silly for ranting so much, "Well, why didn't he tell me that!" he exclaimed.

Bob shrugged. "I dunno, maybe he was trying to save time on the IM, to save drachma."

"Ah," muttered Nico, "Should have thought of that."

"Anyway," said Bob, breaking an awkward silence, "Let's get this done."

Nico sighed. "Yeah," he muttered, following Bob into the school, "Let's."

~P~

The two teenagers approached the entrance to the cafeteria quietly. The plan was to get in, get Cyrus, and get out as quickly as possible. Of course, both of them knew it wouldn't be anywhere near that simple.

This was amply demonstrated when, as they reached the entrance, a figure appeared from the shadows and pulled them back by the scruff of the neck.

"What is this?" hissed the dark figure, "Sneaking out of lunch, are we?"

Nico sighed grimly, before speaking. "Listen, Alecto, I know it's you," he said, fingers drumming on the handle of his sword.

The Fury stepped forward into the light. She was indeed disguised as a teacher, and was wearing a dark pinstripe suit, slip-on shoes, and her best scowl.

"Mr. di Angelo?" she muttered irritatedly.

Nico rolled his eyes. "What is it with people asking me my name when they already know," he muttered to himself, before going on in a more authoritative voice. "Yeah, it's me, and I'm here to pick up this demigod, so you can just keep out of it, and I won't have to send you on the express route back to Hades."

The Fury hissed again. "But Nico, how are you so sure that it is a demigod?"

Nico frowned. "What are you talking about?"

The vengeful spirit cackled. "Ah, you don't even know! Well, let me tell you. This child -"

Just then, the bell rang, interrupting Alecto.

"It doesn't matter," Nico said brusquely, "Stand down, or I _will_ make you."

The Fury said nothing, but began to revert to her true form, sprouting wings, hands turning to scaly claws.

Nico shrugged. "Alright, then," he declared, drawing his sword, "If that's how you want it!"

He was about to attack, when he heard a cry behind him of "Bob!"

Nico over his shoulder. Standing a few steps behind him was a boy a couple years younger than Nico. He had brown hair, and striking blue eyes. He was holding three or four books under his arms, and was staring at the scene before him with astonishment.

"Cyrus!" exclaimed Bob.

Nico started. So this was the guy he'd been sent to pick up. He didn't seem much, and at first glance Nico would peg him as a Demeter kid, though when he looked closer he noticed that the boy's eyes were startlingly clear, and he appeared to be seeing what was actually going on in front of him, rather than the Mist-obscured version.

Nico turned back to the monster, who was now in her true form. He heard Cyrus ask Bob what was going on. The son of Hades decided he didn't need questions being asked just now, so he turned around and snapped his fingers in an attempt to manipulate the Mist.

"Everything is normal here," he said sharply, "Just stay there."

Cyrus stared at him blankly. "Um, no," he said slowly, talking to Nico as if he was a lunatic, which probably wasn't completely untrue. "There's a crazy bat thing just there, and you're holding a weird black sword."

Nico frowned. The Mist trick should has worked. Even if Cyrus was a demigod, his ability to see through the Mist could only be low-level at this stage.

"Now listen here-" Nico started to say, however he was cut off by Alecto.

"Enough of this nonsense!" screeched the Fury, flapping her wings and making towards Cyrus, who just stood there, staring blankly.

"Get out of the way!" roared Nico, and luckily Cyrus obliged, diving to one side.

Nico leapt into the path of Alecto. She swerved to avoid him, but he swung his sword upwards, striking her in mid-air.

She froze, as the son of death sliced her across the chest with his blade. Yellow threads spread out across her body from the cut. She fell to the ground with a screech of pain.

Nico took a step towards her. "Why is my father interested in this demigod?" he demanded, raising his sword for another strike. "Tell me!"

The Fury shook her head and laughed again. "You have no idea. I cannot tell you, but you will know before long."

Nico shouted in frustration, and brought his sword down, stabbing Alecto deeply. This blow was too much for her, and she exploded into a shower of dust, her laughter still echoing through the hall.

~P~

**Chapter Two will probably be up within the next ten days, at the most. Don't forget to review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Well, here be Chapter 2. It was harder to write than the last one, but I'm happier with this than I was with the first chapter. Thanks again to whomever reviewed, alerted, etc. Thanks to Sophie (Angharad 8D) for the tip about using double quote marks. Duly noted, Soph! **

**There is an extremely small Doctor Who reference in this chapter. If you can spot it, you get ten imaginary cookies. **

**Now, on with the show!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. Tis all for fun. **

Rise of the Forgotten

Chapter 2: Aura

"All right. What the _hell_ is going on?"

Cyrus's somewhat tremulous voice broke the silence that reigned after Alecto was destroyed.

Nico sheathed his sword, and turned around to face Cyrus. The potential demigod was standing against the wall next to Bob. He looked pretty freaked out, which was understandable, Nico thought.

Nico sighed. "Do you want to explain this one, Bob?" he asked.

"W-well, y-you see," stuttered Bob awkwardly.

"I'll take that as a 'no,'" Nico broke in. He didn't need Bob getting muddled up and confusing Cyrus even more.

Nico took a step towards the kid, looking at him carefully for the first time. He was of average height, with a studious-looking face. He had short brown hair and dark blue eyes. He looked, Nico thought, very normal, except for the eyes. The boy's eyes looked far older and wiser than the rest of him, and they seemed to look deeply into everything.

"You gonna stand there all day, or what?" snapped Cyrus, with a mild British accent.

Nico started slightly, coming out of his reverie. "Um, okay," he said, "Let me give it you straight," the son of Hades took a breath, getting ready for the inevitable accusations of insanity, "You know the old myths, about the Greek gods and stuff? Well, they're not myths. They're real. All the gods, all the monsters, they exist."

Nico paused, waiting for Cyrus to exclaim in disbelief. To his surprise, however, this did not happen. Cyrus just looked at Nico, as if waiting for the punch-line.

Nico was silent for a moment too long, for Cyrus snapped irritably again, "And?"

Nico frowned. "So, you believe me?" he asked, puzzled.

Cyrus rolled his eyes. "No, I've just seen you kill one of the ancient Furies and I think you're trying to steal my lunch money!"

Nico scratched his head. This pick-up was going a lot more weirdly than he expected. "Right. And, the gods sort of have kids with mor- normal humans from time to time. Annndd those kids are called half-bloods, 'cause, they're half-god and half-mor- human."

Cyrus nodded again, seeming as if a truth he knew his whole life was simply being confirmed. "And?"

Nico rocked back on forth on his feet, feeling as incredulous as he had expected Cyrus to be. How could the kid be so blasé about this?

He took a breath, before delivering the kicker. "And… you are… a half-blood."

At this, Cyrus really was surprised. He leaned back against the wall, disbelief etched across his face in big, red, metaphorical letters.

Bob spoke up, coherent at last. "Nico, we need to move," he said urgently.

Nico nodded. "Listen, Cyrus, I know you have questions, but we're going to go somewhere safe, okay? Somewhere for half-bloods."

Cyrus nodded weakly, and started to follow Nico and Bob down the hall. Unfortunately for Nico's patience, however, they didn't get far before Cyrus stopped.

"Wait, wait, wait," he said quickly.

Nico huffed. "What?"

Cyrus shook his head. "That's… that's not possible."

Bob frowned. "What's not possible?"

Cyrus looked at him. "Well, you ought to know this. I can't possibly be the son of a Greek God. I have two parents at home!"

Nico turned around to look at Cyrus. "Parents. Yeah, but, are they both your… you know," Nico fumbled for words in wake of this development.

"My biological parents? Yeah, of course!" replied Cyrus abruptly

"You sure?" enquired Bob.

Cyrus rolled his eyes again. Nico got the feeling he was a sarcastic sort of kid. "No. I'm not sure of who my biological parents are. Please help me." he muttered sarcastically.

Nico and Bob just looked at him silently.

"Of course I'm sure!" Cyrus exclaimed. "Or would you like me to go home and get my birth certificate? Perhaps some baby photos?"

Nico shrugged. "It doesn't matter," he said, "We need to get you to camp. Chiron will IM your parents when we get there. Let's go."

He turned to go, but Cyrus's next words stopped him in his tracks. "Don't you get it?" the boy said loudly, "I'm not coming with you! You've got the wrong guy!"

Nico groaned. "I really didn't want to do this," he muttered to himself, before moving toward Cyrus and grabbing both his hands.

"Listen to me," he said sharply, "I'm going to show you something, now, and I just know I'm going to regret it, but it's the only way you can understand what danger you are in!"

Cyrus started to babble out a protest again, but Nico just growled, "Oh, shut up," and started to mutter in Ancient Greek.

Cyrus fell silent as the air around him and Nico seemed to writhe and darken. It formed into a dark mist all around their bodies, slowly increasing in volume. Bob took a step back, looking perturbed. Nico's face was tense with concentration, as he manipulated the fog. He shuddered slightly, and suddenly the mist shot together, forming a single, pitch-black sphere.

The soccer-ball sized object rose into the air between Nico and Cyrus, the son of Hades muttering like mad all the way. His Greek whispers went faster and faster, louder and louder, until he shouted out in Ancient Greek and broke apart from Cyrus.

The sphere of mist cracked in two, down the middle. The two halves spread back out into a mass of fog, and both parts went opposite directions. One went towards Nico, surrounding him, the other to Cyrus, swathing him in the swirling stuff.

"What… what is this?" Cyrus cried out, scared.

Nico ignored him, drawing his sword and passing it through his mist. He stepped towards Cyrus again to do the same thing, but the confused potential-demigod stumbled backwards.

"Stay away from me!" he shouted out.

Nico broke his chant for a second to snap, "Stay still, I'm not going to hurt you." He quickly passed his blade through the mist around Cyrus. He muttered one last incantation, before tossing his sword to the ground and clapping his hands.

There was a bright flash of light, and the mist around the two of them changed colour rapidly. Nico's mist changed to a dark-grey colour, and it writhed incessantly.

On the other hand, Cyrus's mist turned a bright orange-red colour. His mist did not writhe so much as flicker, and it looked for all the world as if he was surrounded in bright fire.

He looked around at himself, bewildered. "What is this?" he asked again, after a moment of silence.

Bob glanced at Nico, looking amazed, before speaking. "That's not… is that…" he stuttered.

Nico nodded proudly. "It is!" he declared, before staggering backwards. He slumped to the ground, groaning.

Bob took a step towards him tentatively. "Nico? You okay?"

Nico waved his hand dismissively. "Alright. Just… bit of an exhausting process. Dear Zeus, I am never ever doing that again." He stretched out with a groan.

Bob glanced at Cyrus, and back to Nico. "But… is that… how can you do that?"

Nico got to his feet shakily. "Learned it during the last war. Good, isn't it?"

Bob just nodded silently, glancing at Cyrus again.

"What is it? Enough with the cliché keeping-the-kid-in-the-dark!" Cyrus said.

Nico inclined his head. "This is aura-reading. A high-level Mist-manipulation skill that can only be performed by a creature of the Underworld."

Cyrus frowned. "And you're a creature of the Underworld?"

Nico bowed mockingly. "Yep. Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, at your service."

Cyrus nodded slowly, too transfixed by the mist around him to register the fact that the teenager in front of him was a son of the ancient god of death.

"But… but why…" he suddenly noticed the people in the hall. The students had come out of the cafeteria and were in the halls, making their way to their classes. The odd thing was they were completely ignoring the trio.

"Can't they see us?" asked Cyrus.

Nico shook his head. "I manipulated the Mist so that we are completely invisible."

Bob frowned. "But how can you do that?"

Nico shrugged. "Mist originates from the Underworld. Hence, creatures of the Underworld have a greater level of control over it."

"But why? Why show me this… this aura?" Cyrus said.

Nico came close to Cyrus, gesturing towards his aura. "Your aura is highly unusual, by mortal standards. Look how bright and strong it is… Here, allow me to demonstrate."

Nico picked up his sword and waved it at Cyrus like a wand. The mist rose up, and Nico sent it towards a passing boy in the hall. As the mist settled onto the student, it changed to a dull blue colour. The aura was much smaller compared to Nico's or Cyrus's. Nico waved his sword again, sending the mist back to Cyrus, the passing boy oblivious to the proceedings.

"You have the aura of a half-blood," explained Nico, "And even if you do have two normal parents, there is something different about you, and you need to come with me and Bob now."

Cyrus hesitated for a moment, before nodding.

"Good." huffed Nico. "Now, follow me."

The ride to camp went quickly after that. Nico wasn't too happy about the car Chiron had rented ("Cheapskate centaur," he muttered under his breath as he started the engine up), and Cyrus was full of questions, which Nico found just the teensiest bit annoying. On the bright side, no monsters attacked them on the road.

"And what do you have to do with all of this, Bob?" Cyrus asked as they pulled out of the car park.

Bob hesitated before answering. "Well, I'm a satyr, Cyrus, and, um, I'm sorta assigned to watching you and helping you to camp."

Cyrus was pretty stunned at this revelation, and reeled off more questions, although Nico tuned out most of it.

At one point, after many questions, Cyrus asked, "So according to you, I'm a demigod?"

"We think, yeah," Nico said in response, pausing at a red light.

Cyrus laughed sardonically. "Oh, wonderful. So, I'm going with two people, one of whom is a complete stranger, to a camp at an unknown location, because these two peoplethink I am the child of a Greek God. Oh, and the complete stranger is a son of the god of the Underworld. Which is also real."

Nico nodded, pressing on the accelerator, as the light turned green. "Pretty much," he said, his response triggering another rant from Cyrus, which Nico ignored.

He did listen in, however, when Cyrus started explaining why he wasn't all that surprised at the "revelations of mythiness," as Cyrus put it.

"Well, when you see weird creatures that look like they've come out of a story book all your life, you kinda get used to crazy revelations." Cyrus explained.

Bob frowned. "What sort of creatures?"

Cyrus shifted around on his seat. "Well, I didn't know what they were when I was younger, but when I started reading Greek myths, I realised all those creatures I'd been seeing were the same as the ones in the myths."

Nico was puzzled. Most demigods were susceptible to the Mist until they found out about their godly side. Cyrus, however, seemed to have always been able to see through the Mist. Nico wasn't sure if even Annabeth had been like this.

"And these monsters," Nico asked, eager to find out more, "Did they ever attack you?"

Cyrus shook his head. "No. Today was the first time I was ever attacked." he answered.

Nico fell silent, thoughtful. He was no Oracle, but he could just tell there was somethingelse going on. Just as he came to this philosophical decision, they arrived at their destination. Half-Blood Hill.

"Just leave the car here," Bob instructed, as they parked. "Chiron'll take care of it."

Nico nodded, glad. He wasn't an irresponsible sixteen-year-old, but the less work he had to do the better.

They made their way up the hill, Cyrus pestering Bob with questions. He'd given up asking Nico questions after the son of Hades ignored his twentieth question in a row. Nico sure could isolate himself mentally when he needed to think.

They got down to the Big House at last. Nico sighed with relief, knowing his job was done. He left Cyrus and Bob on the porch, and headed for the arena. He needed some nice, calming sword-practice.

When he reached the arena, there was only one other person there. It was, after all, the last day of school, so most campers were yet to arrive.

He approached carefully, watching from behind as the demigod slashed at the dummies. The person was wearing dark jeans and the camp T-shirt, along with a dark grey baseball cap, which was reversed on the swordsperson's head.

The half-blood stopped maiming the straw dummies just as Nico got up to them, sheathing their sword and turning around, revealing them to be a girl about Nico's age, with blue eyes and curly brown hair.

She nodded at Nico. "Hey there," she said in a Midwest accent.

"Hi," replied Nico, looking at the girl carefully. He didn't recognise her, although he hadn't exactly spent a huge amount of time at camp the last few years. He couldn't place her godly parentage at first glance: the black clothing and bright complexion seemed to be at odds with each other.

She broke the silence first. "I'm Alice, Alice Evans," she said, extending her hand.

Nico shook her hand, replying "Nico di Angelo. Son of Hades."

To Nico's surprise, Alice laughed. "Oh, I know who you are," she chuckled, "You're pretty well known around here. The wandering son of Hades, never fully here nor there."

Nico frowned. "I never heard that one." he muttered.

Alice nodded. "Most people don't tend to hear about all the stories associated with them around here. Kind of a camp tradition."

"Then why are you telling me?"

"I like breaking the rules," Alice responded simply.

Nico inclined his head. "Likewise. So, which Olympian is your parent?"

Alice rolled her eyes. "Apollo. Although I'm not like most of my siblings."

"I gathered that," Nico replied, "The black clothing isn't exactly in-character for a child of Apollo, now, is it?"

She shook her head. "You would think so; but it just depends on what part of Apollo's personality you inherit."

"What do you mean?" asked Nico, intrigued.

The daughter of Apollo drew her sword again. Nico stepped back involuntarily, but she simply turned around and started hacking at the dummies again.

"Apollo has many different sides, because he has many different jobs," she explained, decapitating a poor, innocent strawman, "And most of his kids inherit one of his cheerier aspects, like musicality or sunny disposition."

She ducked down as one of the dummies swung around on an axis. As Nico watched her, he realised that he'd never seen an Apollo child quite so skilled with a sword.

"However, sometimes one of his children get his darker aspect, his god-of-prophecy side," Alice went on, "And those kids, when they come along occasionally, tend to be a lot more serious, and a lot more attuned to the future."

"And you're one of those kids?" Nico finished, getting the idea.

She swung her sword in an upward arc, slicing a dummy down the middle, before sheathing her weapon and turning back to Nico.

"Yep," she answered, "Well, not one of, more like the only one."

Nico nodded sympathetically. "I know the feeling."

Alice sighed, shaking her head. "As the inheritor of the prophesying part of Apollo, I get flashes, sometimes, of the future. Vague shapes. Echoes in time."

Nico whistled. "That must be a bit tough."

She snorted. "A bit, yeah. And it's been getting worse, especially since…" she trailed off, focussing on something over Nico's shoulder

"Jake!" she exclaimed, colouring a little.

Nico turned. Behind him was another demigod, also wearing dark clothes, but this time it was a boy. He, too, was about Nico's age. He seemed to have emerged from the shadows, and had his hand in his leather jacket as if putting something away. He was also wearing dark jeans and black Converse, and strapped to his belt was what appeared to Nico to be a Stygian iron sword.

He glanced up, starting slightly when he saw Nico and Alice. He withdrew his hand from his jacket and walked up to them.

"Alice!" the demigod exclaimed, "Didn't expect to see you here."

Alice laughed, slightly frantically. Nico gave her a sidelong look. She was quite a bit more flustered than when she'd been talking earlier.

"Oh, you know," she said, in a failed attempt to be casual, "Just came up for some sword practice." She glanced around as if looking for an escape route. Her eyes landed on Nico.

"Have you met Nico?" the daughter of Apollo asked. Not giving the new arrival a chance to answer, she went on "Oh, well, I must be off. Got to get ready for dinner!" With that she sped off out of the arena, Nico looking at her back bemusedly. Looks like someone has a crush, he thought.

The boy whom Alice had called Jake shook his head. "She's always like that. No idea why."

Nico chuckled to himself. Some demigods could be clueless about emotions sometimes, the most glaring example being Percy. The son of Hades was thankful that he wasn't quite so slow when came to feelings. At least, not much.

The leather jacketed teenage extended his hand. "I'm Jake Wilson, son of Erebus."

Nico took the proffered hand, looking at Jake carefully, the way he had with Alice. It was kind of a habit with him. He could see why Alice had gotten the way she did: Jake was quite handsome and rugged-looking, although Nico could see something unsettling in the demigod's dark eyes, which were not unlike Nico's.

"I'm Nico di -"

"-Angelo, yeah, I know," Jake finished for him. "You are the only other person at camp other than me to possess a Stygian iron sword."

Nico nodded, making a mental note to ask Percy how many stories about him were floating around camp.

Jake stepped back from Nico, drawing his sword. Nico looked at him quizzically.

Jake grinned. "I like to get to know people while sparring with them. Game on?"

Nico mirrored Jake's grin, drawing his own sword. "Game on."

There was a flash of blue sparks as the two Stygian blades clashed into one another.

"So," grunted the son of Erebus, trying to push Nico back, "Shadow-travelled anywhere interesting lately?"

Nico staggered away from the arena an hour later, exhausted but cheerful. He'd had a good hour sparring, and it had been great to talk to a demigod as connected to the Underworld as he was.

Jake was one of the demigods claimed back at the end of Titan War. His father had been neutral in the war, but had been bound by the oath and thus he claimed his one son, Jake. The demigod had many powers related to shadows and darkness, although no powers to do with death itself.

Jake was similar to Nico in many respects, but also dissimilar in other ways. Where Nico was quiet and brooding, Jake was more aggressive and fiery. Where Nico would step away, Jake would step forward. And where Nico would summon the dead, Jake would just go nuts attacking.

The conch horn blew just as Nico was heading toward his cabin. He sped up, wanting to drop off his sword before heading to the pavilion. However, as he got to the cabin, he spotted his best friend (though Nico would never admit it), and his best friend's bossy girlfriend.

"Percy! Annabeth!" Nico exclaimed.

Percy gave him a big, brotherly hug.

"Hey, Nico," he said, "We just got here. Thought we'd drop in on you, make sure you hadn't gotten yourself killed."

Nico laughed. "That's my cousin. Sooooo caring."

"So how have you been?" asked Nico of the two of them.

Annabeth laughed slightly. "Well, Percy miraculously managed to graduate -"

"I'm not that stupid." muttered Percy.

"- and I was top of my class in Percy managed not to blow up his school. So, pretty good."

Nico chuckled. "Nice going, Perce."

Percy coloured slightly. "And what about you? How's your year been?"

Nico shrugged. "Oh, you know me. Wandering around. This and that."

Annabeth opened her mouth to say something, and Nico was reasonably sure it was going to be a lecture, so he quickly pushed past her and into his cabin.

"You guys go on to dinner," he said, "I'll just be a minute."

They assented and went on their way, although Nico could tell Annabeth was itching to tell him off for not going to school. As if he could ever go to school, having not been since the 1930s.

After putting away his sword and changing his T-shirt, he made his way to the pavilion. Most people were already there, and a few campers that he was friendly with waved to him.

He sat down on his own at the Hades table. It never really bothered him eating alone, as it gave him a chance to engage in one of his favourite sports - people-watching.

Most of the summer campers had arrived, along with a few new people. At the top table sat Chiron and Mr. D, the former giving a nod and a friendly smile, the latter ignoring him entirely.

Clarisse was there, talking loudly with her siblings. She saw Nico also and gave a good-natured wave. Ever since Nico had turned up at the Battle for Olympus with the legions of the dead the daughter of Ares had had a respect for Nico she reserved only for those who excelled in battle.

It was a typical camp dinner, all in all, right up till the end, when all the campers were having their favourite desserts.

Nico noticed a tree nymph come into the pavilion and go over to Chiron and Mr. D. She whispered something to them, and Chiron turned pale, while Dionysus looked even more sullen than usual. Chiron said something to the nymph, seeming to be asking her a question. She replied quickly, and Chiron nodded. Nico watched as the the spirit turned and sped out of the pavilion, whilst Chiron rose to his feet.

"Can I have your attention please?" Chiron spoke loudly but gently. Slowly, the campers fell silent, watching Chiron, who looked strangely worried.

The centaur cleared his throat, before continuing. "You all need to listen very carefully. I have just received urgent news from Olympus. It has come to the attention of the Gods that something very unfortunate has occurred."

He paused, taking a drink. The pavilion was silent as a grave.

He went on. "Something has disappeared from Olympus. It seems…" he hesitated, before deliverng the line that caused utter chaos to ensue amongst the campers.

"The Flame of Olympus, the sacred item of Lady Hestia herself, has been stolen."

~P~

**Not sure when Chapter Three will be out, as I have a few one-shot ideas I might work on first. Shouldn't be more then two weeks though!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Well, here's Chapter 3! Took a bit longer than the last one, so, sorry for the wait. This is more of an exposition chapter, but I am getting into the plot now. Hope you like it, and be sure to review, if you have time.**

**This chapter is dedicated to Mission to Marzipan, a great author and person, whose emails and PMs have been a great source of help and information.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. Tis all for fun.**

Rise of the Forgotten

Chapter 3: Warnings

Nico stood up slowly, cursing to himself. The demigods in the dining pavilion had been babbling on for several minutes now. Many of them were confused or just flat out panicked.

Nico groaned to himself. Some of these supposed heroes were so _stupid_. The longer they went on like this, the more time the thief of the Flame had to get away. Didn't they realise how important this sacred item was? Although, Nico thought, it was hardly surprising. Lady Hestia wasn't exactly one to share her secrets with people who didn't ask. And he had been one of the few demigods to stop to talk with the goddess of the hearth. So he was probably one of the only campers, if not _the _only, to understand the significance of the theft. Heck, even the Athena campers didn't seem to know why the Flame was important.

He looked around the pavilion. Chiron was trying to bring calm to the area, but the centaur wasn't getting anywhere. The whole ADHD thing was really working against them now. Nico glanced over at the Hermes table, and noticed Cyrus was one of the few people saying nothing at all. He looked much calmer and more collected than any demigod Nico had seen.

The son of Hades cracked his knuckles, an annoying habit he'd picked up from when he knew Minos. The old scoundrel did it all the time. Whenever he spent time with Rachel she tried to get him to stop it. Ah, Rachel. The time he spent with her… she made him feel truly welcome in the land of the living through their banter. If only she wasn't the Oracle…

Nico shook his head. There was no time to think about that now. He had to get everyone quiet, and fast. He stretched his arms and focussed on the ground, feeling energy surge up into him from the earth. He closed his eyes tight, concentrating on the earth, feeling the power of it. He imagined the ground cracking open, creating a direct passage down to the Underworld. Before long, the earth began to rumble and shudder, the form of a crack beginning to appear in front of the Hades table.

The campers gradually fell silent, all turning to watch as the gap in the ground appeared. Nico opened his eyes again, just as a small jet of blue fire shot out of the crack.

"Decided to be quiet, have we?" Nico called out across the pavilion sardonically. He brought his hands together, this time focussing on closing the crack. The resulting clap echoed far louder than normal. The crack abruptly shut, in an almost comical speed-rewind fashion.

Chiron smiled weakly at Nico, looking unusually pale for a two thousand year old trainer of heroes who'd had seen more tragedies than… well, anyone, really.

"Thank you for your… _assistance_, Nico," Chiron said. 'Now, this is a highly important and sensitive matter. Therefore, all the counsellors must have a meeting in twenty minutes. Then the counsellors can spread the information amongst the rest of the campers. In the meantime, don't give up hope!"

The various counsellors around the pavilion nodded, and Chiron turned and galloped off towards the Big House, Mr. D having already vanished.

Nico stepped out from his table. The demigods had started talking again, but now they were calmer and less panicky. He went over to the Poseidon table where Percy was sitting, staring into space; a pose Annabeth called "The Seaweed Stare."

"Hey, Percy," Nico said after a moment. "Anyone there?"

The demigod started, noticing Nico finally. "Uh, hey, Nico," he said. "Didn't see you there."

Nico nodded, sitting down next to Percy. Technically he was breaking the rules, but Nico had never been one for rules, and it was just campers in the pavilion now anyway.

"So what do you think?" asked Nico, looking at Percy carefully. "Ever heard of this 'Flame of Olympus'?"

The son of Poseidon shook his head slowly. "No. I haven't. Though maybe Annabeth has. Have you?"

Nico nodded. "_I _have. But then I think I'm the only demigod at camp who ever stopped to talk to Hestia at the hearth, when I first arrived."

Percy glanced at Nico, curious. "She told you about this…Flame?"

"Yep. She did. All about it."

"Then why—" Percy started to say, but he was cut off by the appearance of Annabeth.

Nico looked up at the daughter of Athena. She looked rather distracted, and was chewing on her nails in the way she only did when she didn't know something. And if there was one thing a child of Athena _hated_, it was not _knowing _something.

"What's up, Annabeth?" asked Nico casually.

She shook her head. "I've never heard of this Flame of Olympus. I've researched the sacred items, the symbols of the gods. But nowhere have I come across this Flame."

Percy frowned, as puzzled as usual. "But… Hestia has a symbol of power, right?"

Annabeth huffed. "She has _symbols _of power, of course. All the gods do. But there is no record of her sacred item, her symbol of symbols."

Percy shrugged. "Well, maybe that means it isn't too important."

Nico sighed. Why do people always underestimate the things associated with hearth and home, he wondered to himself. No wonder Hestia had said her days were numbered.

"It's important, you can be sure of that." Nico said.

Annabeth looked at Nico sharply. "You know about the Flame? But how?"

The son of Hades shrugged infuriatingly. "Hey, you'd know about it too if you had ever spoken to Hestia."

Annabeth's eyes narrowed, boring into Nico. She was in full-on Cabin Six Interrogation Mode (TM).

"Tell me, Nico." she said in a tone that would make most people spill their innermost secrets. Unfortunately for her, Nico thought wryly, he wasn't most people.

He stood up and stretched. "I'm not telling you. After all, I don't know if I have the whole story. I'm sure Chiron will fill you all in." He turned and started walking in the direction of the Big House. He paused, and called over his shoulder. "Let's just say this isn't a situation you should underestimate."

With that, he ran for it, before Annabeth decided to force answers out of him.

~P~

The counsellors filed into the rec room. Nico was already in there, having a game of impromptu table tennis against Jake, who was the counsellor for the Erebus cabin, due to being the only one in his cabin. Chiron was there too, but Mr. D was nowhere to be seen.

There was a counsellor for every god, minor and major. From Poseidon to Eris, each one was represented. A few were stand-in counsellors, like Annabeth, as some of the actual head counsellors hadn't arrived at camp yet.

Once everyone had assembled around the tennis table, Chiron called the meeting to order.

"We are here to discuss the theft of the Flame of Olympus from the throne room of the gods itself. None of the gods were in the chamber at the time, so the identity of the thief is unknown. Hestia left the chamber for a time, and when she returned the Flame was gone. Any questions?"

Annabeth spoke instantly. "Yes. What _is _the Flame of Olympus? No one in my cabin has heard of it."

Chiron sighed. "The Flame of Olympus is Lady Hestia's primary symbol of power. The reason why no one has heard of it—"

"I have!" Nico broke in, earning himself an angry glare from Annabeth.

"Ah, yes, Nico," Chiron said quickly, too experienced a teacher to be bothered by such an interruption. "As I was saying, the reason why _most_of you haven't heard of the Flame is because the goddess of home and hearth very rarely shares information about herself."

He picked up a bat from the table, turning it over and over in his hand as he went on.

"She is like this not by choice, but because of the Ancient Laws. I'm sure you've all heard of the Laws?"

All the demigods nodded. The laws of the immortals were one of the few things all half-bloods learnt and actually remembered.

Chiron went on, gesturing in the air with the bat. "However, there is an ancient law you probably have not heard of. The Law of Reciprocity. To understand this law, you first must realise that some information is, to the gods, as important and valuable as gold drachma are to us. This is because—"

Annabeth broke in. "They are beings sustained by belief and thought, in part at least, and so information associated with them is very personal and integral."

Chiron nodded. "That's right. And the Law of Reciprocity states that an immortal cannot give away information about themselves without being asked for it."

Nico was starting to see what the centaur was getting at. "And hardly anyone asked Hestia about her celestial significance, so she couldn't tell anyone?" he asked.

Chiron inclined his head. "That's right. Hence, very few people know of the existence of the Flame."

Max la Rue, Clarisse la Rue's younger brother and counsellor of the Ares cabin, spoke up. "Does any of this even matter? We need to find the thief and teach him a lesson!"

Chiron pointed the tennis bat at Max, saying sternly, "It is important to understand the back story to all this. Any information could be the key to finding the thief."

Alice Evans, who Nico was surprised to learn was the Apollo counsellor, spoke next. "But why is the Flame important?"

Chiron's face sagged. For a moment, a great worry seemed to press down on him, before he brightened a little and answered. "The Flame of Olympus symbolises the flame of hearth and home. It represents the spirit of family itself. If something were to happen to the Flame, if it were to be damaged or even destroyed, the effects on civilisation and on the family unit itself would be terrible indeed."

The demigods were suddenly very quiet. Nico had never seen a bunch of ADHD teenagers and young adults so quiet and still.

Annabeth was the first to recover, quickly trying to take the matter in hand. "Right. So what's our course of action?"

Chiron tossed the bat onto the table. "We will need a prophecy from the Oracle before we can do anything. Do you know when Rachel will be here?" He addressed the last part to Percy.

The hero of Olympus broke off from staring confusedly at the table and replied, "Uh, she said she'd be here either late tonight or early tomorrow."

The trainer of heroes clapped his hands together, startling more than a few demigods. "Right. In the meantime, this meeting is adjourned!"

~P~

The sky was dark when Nico stepped out of the Big House, and he'd had a long day, so he decided to go straight to bed.

He was hoping for a quiet night's sleep. Unfortunately, the godly part of his mind had other plans.

All demigods get weird and ominous dreams. But Nico's dreams were usually more intense than the average demigod's, because when he slept his godly half often connected to the Underworld. When this happened, he had dreams of ghosts and spirits, howling souls in the depths of Fields of Punishment and beyond.

These dreams got worse when there was some conflict going on in the Olympian world. And that night, his dreams were the worst than they'd been since the Giant War.

In the dream he stood in utter darkness, unable to see or feel anything. He could only hear, and what he heard made him more afraid than he'd been for years.

At first it was but whispers, barely intelligible even to the son of Hades. The whispers grew to murmurs, the murmurs grew to cries, and the cries became shouts.

To anyone other than a child of Hades it would have sounded like nothing more than loud chattering noise, not pleasant but nothing to be worried about.

To Nico, it was more worrying than a snarling Chimera about to have you for lunch. The spirits were crying out to him, warning him of danger coming. As the voices grew louder, he was able to make out certain words, like betrayal…fear…rise of the forgotten…destruction…dark surprise and hope lost and they were getting louder and louder and he wanted to put his hands over his ears but his hands weren't there and they were closing in and there was nothing he could do and louder and louder and he tried to yell but nothing came out and it was too much and something was banging and calling him and oh _gods_, it's too much and—

"NICO!"

A voice broke through the darkness, wrenching him free. His eyes snapped open. He was sitting bolt upright in bed, drenched with sweat. Percy was standing next to the bed, holding Riptide in one hand and a flashlight in the other.

"It's Rachel." he said grimly, his face in shadow. "She's here. And the prophecy's coming."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: Sorry for the big wait for this chapter. It was tricky to write, and things got in the way. Here it is at last, though, so please enjoy.**

**Also, thanks again to anyone who reviewed, alerted or favourited.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. Tis all for fun.**

Rise of the Forgotten

Chapter 4: Prophecy

Nico stumbled out of his cabin after Percy, cursing under his breath. He was deeply unsettled, partly by the dream, if you could call being psychically mobbed by howling spirits a dream, and partly by being woken so early.

He glanced at the sky. Dawn was beginning to break apart the darkness of the night. Even now, Nico thought, the sun chariot was revving up.

Percy glanced at Nico out of the corner of his eye as they walked along. "That looked like a pretty intense dream," he said quietly. "What was it? A vision?"

Nico shrugged, not wanting to describe the dream out loud. If he said it, he'd be giving it form, making it real. He wanted to forget all about the dream, and that wouldn't happen if he started telling Percy about it.

"Oh, you know," he muttered, brushing the topic away. "Just another demigod dream. So… why are we going to see Rachel now? Couldn't the prophecy wait for a more normal hour?"

Percy shook his head, quickening his stride. "Rachel said the prophecy was coming right away, and that she has to give it to you."

Nico frowned. He knew, of course, that any prophecy given by the Oracle had to be given to someone in particular. However, usually that someone was actually looking for a prophecy. Story of my life, he mused. Always getting given things I don't want.

Percy went on. "It's not just you, though," he said. "She asked for two others as well."

"Who—" Nico started to say, but just then the porch of the Big House came into view.

There were five figures on the porch. Chiron was there, towering over everyone else in his full-centaur form. Annabeth stood there too, leaning on the fence talking to a girl next to her, whom Nico realised was Alice. The daughter of Apollo was clad in a light blue dressing gown and grey slippers, which looked wholly out of place next to Annabeth's armour breastplate and khaki trousers.

Nico's breath hitched somewhat and he turned a little red as he spotted the fiery Rachel Elizabeth Dare standing near Chiron. Despite the urgency of the situation he couldn't help his mind drifting. Maybe now Rachel would realise her blazing love for him, and his for her, and she'd throw herself at him, kissing him senseless, not caring what anyone thought while—

Nico shook his head and gave himself a mental slap. Just because he felt like that didn't mean Rachel did. She had never given any impression that she thought of him as anything other than a friend.

The object of his affection was bent over, looking like she was trying not to be sick. The fifth figure, Jake Wilson, stood next to her, watching uneasily.

Percy and Nico bounded up the porch steps. Rachel looked up at the son of Hades, locking eyes with him. Her eyes were exuding that greenish light that appeared whenever a prophecy was being proclaimed. Nico opened his mouth to give a witty greeting, but he was cut off by the rasping voice of the Oracle giving him his first quest.

_The sons of darkness and the daughter of sight  
>Will travel to the land of the forgotten fight<br>An ancient power will awaken and rise  
>If the heroes do not overcome the surprise<br>The child of the light must be destroyed  
>Or hope itself will be decayed<br>That which is lost, must be found  
>Lest Olympus be lost to the ground<em>

And with that cheery declaration, Rachel collapsed, Jake catching her just before her head was introduced to the floor.

* * *

><p>After carrying Rachel to her room in the Big House, Nico and Jake joined the others once again in the rec room.<p>

Nico glanced at Alice. She had her head on the table, clearly distressed. Annabeth was trying to comfort her, but the daughter of Apollo was silent.

Nico couldn't blame her. That line about the child of light being destroyed… it didn't really leave any wriggle room.

After a moment of uneasy silence, Chiron spoke. "I understand if you're all a little upset, and you must all keep hope," he said. "But we need to analyse the prophecy now, and plan our next move quickly."

For the second time in but a few hours, Annabeth took charge. "Well, 'The sons of darkness and the daughter of sight.' Who are they?"

Nico was pleased to know the answer for once. "One is me, as son of Hades, the other is Jake, as son of Erebus."

Chiron nodded. "That's right. You two are the only children of gods of darkness or related jurisdictions."

Jake ran his hand through his hair before asking, "And the daughter of sight? Who's that?"

There was a pregnant pause, everyone knowing the answer but reluctant to say it.

Finally, Alice raised her head, pale and miserable-looking. "It's me," she murmured. "I'm the inheritor of the prophecy side of Apollo. The sight side."

Annabeth spoke right away, moving on before yet another morbid silence could prevail. "Okay. Next is the 'land of the forgotten fight.'"

Everyone looked at Chiron.

He chuckled.

"You heroes," the centaur said quietly. "All the same. Whenever you don't know something you head straight to the oldest person in the room."

He shook his head before carrying on. "Long ago, during the Titanomachy, near the end of the war when the gods had almost won, two Titans had a ferocious fight. It was so devastating it tore a piece of land off the mainland, and one of the Titans' life forces was sealed into the island."

He took a breath, before continuing, the demigods hanging on his every word. "But this battle was lost in the mists of time. Few of the gods know of it, and only the closest relatives of the two Titans know of the full details."

Annabeth picked up the tale, working it out. "And just as Olympus moved throughout the world, as Othrys moved, so too this island has moved."

Jake spoke again. "So where is it now?"

Chiron took a deep breath, saying on the exhale, "Alcatraz."

Nico shivered. He knew what Percy and the others had faced there. Kampé. The jailer of the Titans. Any reason to go there was bad.

Annabeth frowned. "But… who were the Titans who fought?"

Chiron was silent for a whole minute, pondering his answer. "One was Kronos. The other… I-I don't remember who the other was."

There was an awkward, stunned silence. Nico looked at Chiron carefully, shocked. In all the time Nico had known the immortal centaur, he had never clearly spoken a direct lie.

Yet here he was clearly, clearly hiding something. But if Nico knew Chiron, and they'd grown somewhat close over the years, he was lying to protect them in some way, so he decided to move things along, before anyone started getting insistent on answers. Not naming any daughters of Athena, of course.

"So, an ancient power," he said. "That probably means the Titan in the prison, doesn't it?"

Chiron nodded. "Probably. We can't be sure, but it's quite likely. And the surprise… well, that could mean anything."

Percy spoke up. "And hope being decayed? Does that just mean bad things will happen?"

Nico noticed Percy didn't mention the line before that. It seemed the son of Poseidon had gained some emotional sensitivity over the last few years. Who says people have to stay the same?

Chiron nodded again, but turned a little pale. "Probably. Hopefully that's all it means. We can't be sure, though."

Alice blew her nose, before speaking, less afraid and calmer. "And the last two lines are fairly obvious. Save the day, or you're all screwed."

Nico snorted. That was a good way of putting it. Better than the whole "terrible consequences" number.

But…

"Indeed," Chiron said darkly. "There may well be terrible consequences, if the Flame is not found."

Nico tried hard not to roll his eyes.

Annabeth picked up the thread. "So Nico, Jake and Alice have to go to Alcatraz, presumably because that's where the Flame's been brought, deal with a surprise, stop an ancient Titan rising, reclaim the Flame, and bring it home."

Nico shrugged. "Yeah!" he said ironically. "No problem. I'll be back for dinner."

Jake chucked slightly. "We might as well shadow-travel, then," he said. "Get the Flame back ASAP."

Nico started to nod, but froze when he saw Chiron shaking his head.

"What?" the son of Hades whispered. There was no way shadow-travel could have been interfered with, surely.

"The gods have commanded Hades to suspend all shadow-travel." Chiron said quietly.

Nico shared a panicked look with Jake. "Why?"

"The gods believe the thief used shadow-travel to get away with the Flame. So they have shut off that route. They have also forbidden any godly beings, including half-bloods over the age of thirteen, from flight."

Nico nodded slowly, shocked. He knew his father could stop someone shadow-travelling, since any shadow-travel went through Hades's realm. He had never heard of his father using that power, though.

Even Annabeth looked shocked. Percy had dozed off, Alice was staring at the table, pensive, and Jake had his head in his hands. As Nico looked around the room, he realised he had to trek across country with two people he hardly knew in an attempt to stop this ancient power, whose identity they weren't sure of, from rising, and he didn't even know the full facts, because his teacher wouldn't tell him.

Sometimes it just doesn't pay to get out of bed.

* * *

><p>The meeting adjourned soon after a few other specifics were decided. Nico and Co. were to go across country via train. Since all the quests of the last few years, the camp had developed a habit of keeping a travel fund. Hence, Nico was to be given the money needed for the three of them to get around and eat at the same time.<p>

There was no set day on which they had to be back. Nico, in a vain attempt to give himself a reason to relax, pointed out this fact, but Chiron shot him down by grimly declaring that the Flame needed to be recovered yesterday.

So they were leaving the next morning, or rather later that day. Nico went back to bed to get a couple more hours' sleep. Thanks be to the gods, he didn't have any more dreams. He awoke again at about six, and couldn't get back to sleep.

He got dressed, and went outside. No one else was up, so he went over to the lake, to have a little pondering time.

He sat in the lakeshore, cross-legged, shivering slightly, but not from cold.

He was afraid.

Not slightly-worried afraid, or yikes-afraid. Proper, physically and mentally unnerved and spooked.

It wasn't that Nico was easily frightened. Hell, once his sister died, he really didn't have anything to be afraid of. Which was probably just as well, considering the darkness of the wars, all the horror he saw. None of it really scared him. Sure, he might get unnerved a little, but nothing too intense.

Now, though, it was all he could do to keep his knees from knocking.

It wasn't for himself Nico felt this fear. It was for his companions, Alice and Jake. For the first time, he was responsible for someone other than himself. As leader of the quest, he had to make sure his quest-fellows got there and back in one piece, and he had to make all the hard decisions.

The son of Hades felt the weight of this very deeply, and he sat, wondering if it would be too much.

Just as he reached the "oh-my-god-I'm-just-gonna-refuse-to-do-it" point of his train of thought, he heard a footstep behind him. He took a deep breath, drawing in power just in case it was some nasty.

It was, however, just Alice. She dropped down next to him, murmuring, "Hi."

"Hey," said Nico, "Couldn't sleep either, huh?"

"Sort of," she said, giving him a small smile. She was back in her dressing gown, but was barefoot. "I wanted to talk to you before we left, and I had a feeling now would be a good time."

Nico gave her a funny look. "At this hour?"

She shrugged. "I got a little premonition."

"Ah," said Nico, nodding. He considered for a moment, deciding whether or not to tell Alice what he'd been thinking.

He opted to tell her, wanting to get it out into the open. "I was just thinking… I mean, you and Jake, I hardly know you guys, and here we are, thrown together."

Alice nodded, watching him closely.

He plucked up a little grass as he went on, tearing it up. "And the thing is, I have to take responsibility for whatever happens. All the decisions have to clear with me on the road and when we fight whatever took the Flame. And… I don't know how I'll cope with it."

Alice was quiet for a few moments, looking at the water thoughtfully. Nico watched her closely, trying to get the measure of the daughter of Apollo. She had a reasonably pretty face, but not too stunning. She seemed fairly steady-looking, but she looked a bit too innocent, as if she didn't understand how evil people could be.

"You know, I have a great mom," she said suddenly. "We get on great and all that. Nice stepdad the last few years, since she married."

She sighed deeply. "But a couple of years back, Mom got injured in a monster attack."

Alice met Nico's eyes again. "She was injured real bad. Barely survived. I blamed myself for it. We'd been attacked in a park, out walking. I thought if I'd been just a bit quicker…" She looked away, pausing, before going on. "She made it through, of course, but there was a few hours in the waiting room, where I couldn't stop going over it in my head."

Alice's eyes gained a slightly faraway look, as she recounted her story.

"Could I have been quicker with my shield? Should I have stopped Mom from going out? Even… what if I'd stayed at camp year-round?"

She smiled slightly. "So there I was, bawling my eyes out in the waiting room, when I noticed this old man sitting near me.

"He seemed nice, and he just sat there for a while, before saying to me 'Are you alright, young lady?'"

Alice shifted around as she went on. "I looked at him, and he had that Dumbledore-y kind of look, you know? So I started telling him all about it, even about the monster."

She paused for a moment, before saying, "And he just listened to me, and then asked, 'So you're worried you may have caused your mom to get killed?' I nodded, and he went on. 'Well, that's a silly question. Here's a better one: did you do what was right?'

"I was surprised by that, and I thought for a minute. 'Yes,' I answered. Then he said, 'Okay. And when you think carefully, did you do your best?'

"I considered that, and told him yes, I did. And he replied, 'Okay. One more, just one… if you had to relive that situation, would you do the same thing?' I nodded right away, certain of this. He laughed a little, and said, 'Well then, what's there to question?' He winked at me and smiled. I blinked, his smile was so bright, and then he was gone."

Alice shrugged. "Mom survived, made a full recovery, and only later I realised who the old man was."

"Apollo," Nico breathed.

Alice nodded. "He helped me steer out of near-depression, with that simple conversation."

She stood up. "So remember that, Nico, when you're facing decisions on the quest. Ask yourself, are you doing the right thing, the best you can, and something that you would do again, in the same situation."

Nico nodded slowly, and she walked away, murmuring a goodbye.

Nico sat there, taking in what Alice had told him. It made him feel better, in a way. He knew now he had a golden rule to go by, something to help him think through those tricky situations. How well he'd be able to apply that in the heat of battle, he didn't know, but it was better than nothing.

He got up after a while, and headed for the dining pavilion for a quick breakfast. No one else was there, apart from Jake, who was munching on a bacon sandwich.

Nico sat down next to his quest-fellow at the Erebus table, not caring too much about camp rules.

"Hey, you couldn't sleep either?" Jake asked right away.

Nico shrugged. "Been awake for a while. Going over things in my head."

Jake nodded sagely. "Yeah. Always like that before the start of a quest."

Nico looked at him sharply. "You've been on a quest before?"

Jake swallowed, before answering. "Yep. Two quests. One during the Second Giant War, the other last year."

Nico nodded, intrigued. "What were they for?"

"One was a rescue party for a missing demigod," Jake replied. "The other was to rescue one of the Muses."

Nico nearly choked on his orange juice. "Sorry? Muses?"

Jake shrugged. "It was last year. Some cranky spirit from another pantheon kidnapped Clio to make a point, and I had to go with two other demigods to save her. That was how I got to know Alice."

Nico nodded, gesturing for Jake to go on.

He sat back, quiet for a moment, before continuing. "It was me, Alice, and an Athena kid on the quest. Alice and me… we just drew close, I guess. And then the Athena guy got killed. The spirit was badly injured, and Roger - that was the Athena kid's name - rushed us away, before going back to chain up the spirit. But there was an explosion, and Roger got killed.

"In all the shock of it, Alice and I… became more than friends, finding solace with each other. We were together for a while afterward, but in the spring we broke up. Now, we kind of avoid each other."

Nico studied Jake carefully as he finished the tale. The son of Erebus was gazing into the middle distance, a look of pain on his lightly tanned face. He seemed sincere and honest, but Nico sensed a little anger under the surface. Still, not any of his business. Once Jake was reasonable and not overly aggressive, Nico was happy.

He decided to offer a little advice. "Well, it might be awkward between you two on this quest, but if you just try to talk as normal friends at least, you should be okay. Just try and start anew, don't think too much about the past."

Nico thought his advice wasn't up to much, but it was the thought that counted, he figured. Jake nodded, and smiled.

"Thanks, Nico," he said. "I'm glad to be questing with you."

"Likewise," replied Nico, before downing his juice and digging into his bacon and egg.

He chatted with Jake for another little while, before heading back to his cabin to pack what little equipment he needed. His breastplate, sword, extra Stygian crystals, and a small pitch black box all went into his backpack, before he left his cabin and made his way to Half-Blood Hill.

He headed up the hill, just as the conch horn sounded. Waiting for him already were Chiron, Percy and Annabeth, Alice, and, to his discomfort and delight, Rachel.

She was dressed in her trademark jeans and a T-shirt. Her red hair blazed in the morning sun, as she stood talking to Percy and Annabeth. Nico approached, feeling a little awkward. He hadn't spoken to her in a couple of months.

"Hey!" he said quickly.

She met his eyes, and surprised him by giving him a big hug.

"Hey? I haven't seen you in months and all you say is 'hey'!" Rachel teased.

Nico shrugged, reverting to his sarcastic form. "Oh, you know, been busy," he said as they broke apart. "Lots to do. Stuff you mere mortals can't do!"

The last part was said in jest, but her eyes narrowed as she prepared a retort. However, Chiron stepped in then, having finished his talk with Alice.

"Nico, here are some supplies," he said, handing the quest leader a packed duffel bag. "Money for travel. Drachma and extra nectar and ambrosia."

Nico nodded. "Thanks a lot, Chiron. Hope to see you again soon."

The centaur grimaced. "Yes. May the gods go with you. I hope you all come back safe."

"So do I!" declared Jake as he came up atop the hill. Chiron went to talk to him for a moment, and Nico turned to the others.

Percy gave a big bro-hug. "Look after yourself, Nico," he murmured. "Don't get killed. Keep up hope."

Nico smiled. It felt good to be cared for like this by his… family, really. It made things easier as he bade his final goodbyes and got on the bus with Jake and Alice.

He waved out the window as they pulled out, as Argus drove them off to begin their quest in earnest.

Jake chuckled to himself as they rolled down the road. Nico looked at him curiously.

"What?" Nico asked.

"Oh," laughed Jake. "I'm just thinking. This is all so cliché isn't it? The threesome. The journey across country. The save-the-world objective."

Nico laughed at this too. "Yeah. That's us. Living the cliché."


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: I had very mild writer's block on this chapter. However, here it is! Hope you enjoy it, and look out for the Christmas fic I'll be putting up. It'll be called A Very Mary Suemas. **

**Don't forget to review!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. Tis all for fun**.

Rise of the Forgotten

Chapter 5: Why?

Nico slumped onto Rachel's couch, exhausted and dejected. The Oracle peered at him owlishly over the top of her cup of coffee. She looked somewhat bemused, which was understandable, considering Nico had just tumbled out of a shadowy corner in her sitting room, disturbing her perusal of the latest art magazine.

They were both silent for a couple of minutes. It wasn't the first time Nico had turned up at her apartment looking like death. They had a routine.

After the required silence, Rachel stood up from her young yet battered armchair, and headed towards the kitchen, asking Nico on the way, "Coffee?"

Nico grunted in the affirmative.

Once his coffee was made and in front of him on, appropriately enough, the coffee table, Nico spoke.

"I had to do another _job_ for my father," he muttered, stirring his black coffee aimlessly.

"Oh?" replied Rachel quietly.

Nico nodded. "There was another spirit uprising in the Fields of Punishment. Fairly minor, but I had to do most of the legwork to stop it."

Rachel sighed darkly and sympathetically. Nico and Rachel were sounding boards for one another. Had been for a long while. The two of them found it much easier to share things with one another than they did with other people.

Nico went on. "Sisyphus was leading. Stupid idiot. He never shuts up. He led a bunch of tortured souls across the Fields. I was able to stop them, with Thanatos's help, but it was rough.

"I wasn't injured or anything, but… some of the spirits down there have lost their human form. They've been down there for so long, being tortured, that they've changed. They've morphed from a human form into a form that reflects the monster within them."

Rachel gulped. "That sounds… bad."

Nico shrugged. "It's no threat to any of the Olympians or anything. It's just grotesque and horrific to see."

Rachel nodded slowly, before frowning. "Why hasn't that happened to Sisyphus? Or Tantalus?"

Nico sipped his coffee. "It only happens to the mindless ones. The ones who, in life, were mindlessly brutal. The more famous spirits, like Sisyphus, were brutal, but not mindless, so they retain their humanity, to a small degree."

He was quiet for another little while, before Rachel asked, "But, you seem very shaken. I mean, that sounds scary, but you seem more rattled than you would by something scary, usually."

Nico sighed. "I'm a son of Hades. That means I'm attuned to death, and the lack of life. I don't just see the state ghosts and spirits are in, I feel it. I don't feel it as strong as the ghosts do, but it's there when I'm near a lot of spirits. And the state of degeneration these things were in is so intense that I felt it quite strongly. Psychic trauma, basically."

Silence reigned once again in the Oracle's sitting room, before said Oracle got up and sauntered over to Nico.

"Well," she murmured in a way that… _excited_ Nico. "How about we cheer you up?"

She bent down, clearly about to kiss the son of Hades, when everything went dark.

Nico couldn't see anything; the room was as dark as Tartarus.

But then, the silence was broken by whispers. Murmurs came from the dark, all around Nico, and wispy, grey forms began to appear out of the darkness. Many, many ghosts, all whispering the same word over and over again, in different languages.

_Peligro. _

_Pericolo. _

_Gefahr. _

_Perigo. _

**_Danger. _**

Nico saw all different kinds of souls as they gathered around him. Revolutionary War soldiers, children dead from Spanish flu, Mexican men and women worked to death, American Indians brutally murdered. All those, and others too, stood there in the darkness, warning him.

And then, a hugely powerful voice, more pure energy than sound, broke through the whispers, nearly cracking Nico's mind apart. It spoke one word.

RISE.

There was a flash of pure energy, beyond all physical description, and Nico's eyes snapped open—

—to find himself sitting on a softly rattling train. The sky outside was dark; Jake and Alice were sitting next to and across from him, asleep.

He straightened on his seat, shaking his head. That had been one weird dream. It had started as a memory, changed into fantasy when Rachel had come over to him, and finally twisted into a nightmare.

He glanced out the window. It was completely dark, and a look at his watch confirmed it was pushing one thirty.

He sighed, slumping back in his seat. Nico and his fellow questors had gotten a train around lunchtime. They were heading across country. Nico hoped they'd get to Alcatraz without a hitch. Of course, he knew the chances of that were slightly lower than that of Zeus dressing up as Santa Claus.

All in all, everything had gone utterly normally, so far. Which was a very bad thing, as far as Nico was concerned. A demigod's life always appeared normal just before something bad, crazy, and extremely life-threatening occurred.

And on that effervescent note, the son of Hades settled back down and drifted back to sleep.

* * *

><p>He was awoken, later, by daylight streaming on his face. He came to slowly, and heard a faint rustling noise. Nico opened his eyes a crack, and spied a not entirely surprising sight.<p>

Across from him sat Jake, and upon his lap sat Alice. And they were… busy. And not in the who's-the-bad-guy-let's-figure-it-out kind of busy. More the making-out-in-a-way-suitable-for-making-sons-of-Hades-uncomfortable kind.

Nico hurriedly shut his eyes again and considered how to handle this development. Not that he was surprised. Ever since they had gotten on the bus to leave camp, Jake and Alice had been looking each other… meaningfully.

The socially inept son of death decided to noisily straighten up, stretch out, and yawn, without actually opening his eyes. He heard hurried movement, and deemed it safe to open his eyes.

Alice had stood up and was smoothing her clothes down, whilst Jake was patting his hair. Nico put on his best innocent face, and said, "Morning!"

Jake nodded cagily, whilst Alice murmured in reply, looking slightly red. She sat back down and glanced at her own watch.

"It's still only eight," she said. "The buffet car won't be open till nine."

Nico nodded. "Okay. How's about we brainstorm?"

Jake and Alice both nodded. They hadn't talked too much yesterday; all three of them had buried themselves in books or music, while they'd tried not to think about how much bad stuff would go down if they failed on the quest.

Nico took a draught from a water bottle, before saying, "Right. We've got a stolen symbol of power, an unknown thief, some kinda 'rising power,' Chiron being unusually obtuse, and annoying cryptic warnings."

Jake fiddled with the zip of his leather jacket, which he was sitting on. "Well," he said slowly. "The Flame… it sounds a bit like a kind of power source, right?"

Nico nodded. Alice hummed in the affirmative.

Jake shrugged. "So, maybe the ancient power is going to use the Flame to try and rise. Light a fire under its own divine behind."

Nico considered this. "That sounds probable. But what ancient powers are there left who could try to rise? We've had a conga line of them the last number of years."

Alice and Jake stared blankly out the window. Nico stared blankly at his shoes.

They weren't exactly scholars when it came to obscure Greek deities. Even when it is critical to survival, ADHD dyslexic teenagers generally don't like reading.

Alice shrugged. "We've had Kronos, then Gaia. So theoretically, the next in line for power-grabbing could be Chaos."

Nico shook his head. "Nah. If it was Chaos there'd a lot more happening. And anyway, I have a feeling it's a female deity."

Jake gave him a level look. "Why?"

Nico spread his hands, palms-up. "Just… I've been getting warnings from spirits and things, mentioning 'ancient mothers' and things like that."

"Oh," said Jake quietly.

They were quiet for a moment, before Alice said, "And, about Chiron."

Nico looked at her sharply. "What about him?"

She coughed, before saying, "Before we left, he took me aside, and he said something about finding more than we seek."

Nico frowned. "Huh?"

Alice shrugged. "He was kinda cryptic about it, but he seemed to be saying that the Flame might not be the only thing we'll have to retrieve."

Nico groaned, putting his head in his hands. "Oh, Styx. This just keeps getting better and better."

Jake laughed. "Oh, don't be like that, Nico. It's not like the fate of the world rests on us or anything."

Nico snorted. "True."

* * *

><p>A little while later, the three demigods decided to head to the buffet car for some breakfast.<p>

They walked down the train quickly. As they drew near, however, Nico stopped.

Alice glanced back at him, slightly grumpy. "What?"

He was silent for a minute, his hand outstretched in front of him as if he were trying to touch an invisible wall.

He muttered slowly, "There's something here… something from the Underworld."

Jake watched Nico carefully, looking worried. "What is it, exactly?" asked the leather jacketed half-blood.

Nico closed his eyes, reaching out in his mind, searching for spiritual energy similar to that of his own. Underworld energy.

He found its source not far away, just behind the door of the buffet car, in front of which they were standing.

He opened his eyes. "It feels like some kind of spirit or ghost from down below. Sometimes they get out and follow me around. I'm like some sort of Bat Signal to them."

Jake nodded. "So it shouldn't be a threat?"

Nico shook his head in reply.

"All right," said Alice. "In we go!"

Nico strode ahead and opened the door, and the three heroes marched in like they owned the place.

So, naturally enough, they were just a little bit surprised when a shrieking Kindly One burst out of the shadows and came flying towards them like an ugly, scaly, demigod-seeking missile.

* * *

><p>Nico sensed the attack coming just in time to yell, "Down!"<p>

The three of them dropped to all fours, and the Fury, whom Nico had identified as Megaera, zoomed over their heads and into the corridor. Nico leapt up and slammed the door shut, and there was a loud crunch as the Kindly One crashed into the door.

Nico drew his sword and stepped away from the door, watching it closely. Jake and Alice had both drawn their weapons, and were looking at Nico accusatorially.

"What?" he said defensively. "Meg obviously cloaked her presence. Contrary to popular belief, I'm not infallible."

Jake shook his head. "It doesn't matter. The important thing is, what is a servant of Hades doing attacking us?"

Nico shrugged. "I dunno. Let's ask her."

The son of Hades walked back over to the door and called through it. "Megaera! As the son and heir of Lord Hades, your master, I command you to state your reasons for this assault!"

Nico turned and winked at his quest-fellows. "See?" he whispered proudly. "I _can_ talk fancy."

There was a hissing sound from behind the door, and the Fury replied. "Son of Hades, my quarrel is not with you. The Lord Hades instructed all his minions to be on the alert for energy traces similar to that of the Flame. I detected such a trace in your company, and sought to recover the Lady Hestia's symbol of power."

Nico frowned, looking at Jake and Alice, who both stared blankly back at him.

He sighed, before saying to Meg, "I give you my word that neither I nor any of my companions are in possession of the Flame. I swear this upon the River Styx."

The rumble of thunder in the distance was somewhat overshadowed as Megaera reappeared from a shadowy corner and slammed into Alice, knocking her flat. Nico stepped forward to help Alice, but there was a sudden, blinding flash of light and he dropped to the ground, stunned.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: A belated Happy New Year to you all! I hope you all had a good Christmas. I know I did. Anyway, here's the latest installment of this little tale. Please read, and be sure to review!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. Tis all for fun.**

Rise of the Forgotten

Chapter 6: Shadows and Sodas

Nico's vision cleared a mere second later, and he got to his feet right away. He looked around just in time to see Alice kick Megaera into the wall of the carriage. Nico's estimation of the daughter of Apollo went up a few notches right away.

He picked up his sword and moved over to Alice and the Fury.

Alice was staring down at Meg with a look of murderous… well, fury, on her face. Nico had to suppress a gulp of unease as he realised Alice looked scarier than the avenging spirit that lay in front of her.

Alice spoke quietly. "You. You're the disgusting creature that attacked my mother."

The Fury hissed. "I was hunting you, as is my right. Your mother was, unfortunately, in the way."

Alice's eyes blazed. "_In the way?_" she hissed back. "Do you have any idea what you did? No, I suppose you don't."

She shook her head, before drawing back her sword and bringing it down towards Megaera's neck.

There was a clang as steel met bronze. Nico stopped Alice's attack before she could sever the Fury's head.

Alice looked at him in surprise. "What are you doing?" she asked angrily.

Nico shook his head. "You can't kill her. If you cause harm to a servant of Hades while they are on official business, my father will assume you are guilty of the theft of the Flame, and he'll loose all his minions to hunt us down."

Alice bared her teeth in a snarl, not backing down. "I don't _care_ about your stupid Underworld politics. My mother nearly _died_because of this monster filth."

She struggled against Nico's guard. He took a breath, before saying, "Alice, I know. Believe me, I know what you're feeling. But you can't let your anger over what happened control you. If you do, you'll be acting no better than the monsters themselves."

Alice scowled at him, but Nico knew he'd gotten through to her. She took a step back, lowering her sword and taking a deep breath, before glancing down at the Fury.

Or rather, where the Fury had been a moment ago.

Nico span about, scanning the room. Megaera was nowhere to be seen.

He spat out a curse. "_Di immortales._"

Alice looked around, frowning. "Where's Jake?" she asked.

Nico groaned. "Oh, in the name of—"

He fell silent as Megaera's voice hissed all around him, coming from every shadow as if there were a loudspeaker hidden in each of them.

"Surrender the Flame, child of Apollo, and the son of the shadows will be spared."

Alice gritted her teeth, and growled, "I. Don't. Have. The. Flame."

The Fury cackled in a cliched villain-y kind of way. Nico closed his eyes, blocking out the sounds of Alice and the Fury arguing, the sound of Megaera's laughter, and the whisper of the rattling train.

He felt out with his demigod senses, searching all around for energy signatures, those of humans and Underworld creatures both.

He quickly identified the signatures of both Jake and the Fury. However, after a moment he felt something else there. Something that made his blood run cold.

His eyes snapped open, and he stepped close to Alice, staring around like a madman.

Alice looked at him curiously. "What is it, Nico?"

He tightened his grip on his sword, taking a deep breath before answering. "There's something else in here with us. A lot of somethings."

Alice stared at him for a moment, before saying, "How many?"

Nico shook his head. "About ten or fifteen. Can't say how many exactly."

She nodded. "Right. So, what do we do?"

Nico considered for a moment, before nodding to himself, and he muttered something in Alice's ear.

* * *

><p>Two minutes later, Alice stepped into the centre of the seemingly empty room. The morning sunshine streamed around her, making her cast a long shadow. She appeared to be the only one in the room, and, if a random person had looked in the door, she would have seemed to be talking to herself.<p>

"Alright, Fury," she whispered icily. She dropped her sword on the floor and stepped beyond it, before saying, "I surrender. Do as you will."

At first the carriage was, apart from the rattle of the windows and the shudders from the engines, silent as the grave, which was rather prosaically appropriate, but entirely unhelpful to Alice.

She opened her mouth again, but just then the Fury stepped out from the shadows again. The monster walked slowly towards Alice, stopping two or three feet from the demigod. Megaera chuckled happily, and put out her hand, no doubt to take the Flame.

And that was when Nico shot out from Alice's shadow, his own hand outstretched. He tossed Alice's sword to her before slamming into Megaera. He put his hand around her scaly neck, and bellowed in her face, "BEGONE!"

The Fury's eyes widened with shock, and she barely had a moment to shriek in, guess what, fury, before she vanished, forced back to the Underworld by Nico's command.

The king of ghosts stood up slowly and shakily. Alice moved forward to support him. Jake appeared from a shadowy corner, slumped against the wall. Now that the Fury was gone, as Nico had explained to Alice a few moments before, any concealments she had placed on people in that room lifted, making Jake, and the twenty or so other presences Nico had sensed, visible once again.

Those presences were, in fact, around twenty normal men and women getting breakfast. As Nico looked around, and as those people stared back at him, he realised that there should have been people in the car when they came in. And there were; Megaera had just hidden them.

Jake got his feet, and as Nico met his eyes a silent understanding passed between them: one thing was for sure, whatever the mortals had seen, it wasn't good. There was only one thing for it.

"Run!" Nico yelled, bolting for the door, Alice and Jake hot on his heels. The normals broke out from their confused silence at the sound of Nico's shout, and a young man shouted out, "Hey!"

The three demigods ignored him, barrelling down the corridor towards their seats.

"Quick," said Nico, putting on his backpack. "Get all your stuff. I'll hide us."

Alice looked at him quizzically, but didn't argue, a benefit of Nico's successful plan to get rid of Meg. Nico had noticed a while ago that when you came up with a plan that worked, people tended to listen to you more. Unless your name was Percy Jackson, of course.

Jake and Alice finished packing up as the distant sounds of annoyed and confused mortals became… well, less distant.

Nico stepped back into the corridor, beckoning the other two to follow. He led them to a few nice, shadowy seats further down, where the curtains were drawn and the seats were empty.

"Sit down," he whispered as quietly as possible, trying not to wake up the one or two sleeping passengers who were the only others on that carriage.

They all sat down as quietly as possible, and Nico gripped Jake's and Alice's right hands. He closed his eyes, saying as he did so, "Stay really still and concentrate as hard as you can on being invisible."

They complied, and Nico began with making himself invisible, something which by now he could do with ease. Then he focussed on extending the invisibility over his friends. It was easier with Jake, what with his own affinity to the shadows. It was distinctly trickier with Alice, however; while she was doing everything she could to make it easier, her godly side automatically fought against the shadows.

After a moment, however, Nico had done it, and just in time too, for a few of the passengers from the dining car ran by them just then, not so much as glancing at their hiding place.

Nico breathed a sigh of relief. "Alright," he murmured, opening his eyes. "We're okay. In the clear."

Jake nodded, glancing around nervously. "Will we get off at the next station?" he asked.

"Yeah," replied Nico. He glanced at Alice. "Can you get the train route map from your bag?"

She nodded, fumbling with her backpack. On a nearby seat, there was the sound of rustling, as if someone was getting up. The three of them froze, staring at each other.

After an extremely tense minute, all was quiet again, and Alice pulled out the map, squinting at it.

She shook her head. "I can't read it, it's too dark," she hissed.

Jake waved his hand impatiently, gesturing Alice to hand him the map. She did so, and Jake stared at it intently. As Nico watched, the son of Erebus's pupils dilated. After a moment, Jake blinked, and looked up at Nico.

"We can get off in five minutes," he said quietly.

"Alright," said Nico. "Sit tight."

* * *

><p>Ten minutes later, they were off the train and in the middle of a nice little town, looking for a new way to travel. They'd gotten off without too much bother; the passengers looking for the demigods hadn't come back to the carriage, and apart from the quizzical looks Nico and Co got from a nearby passenger when they had appeared from nowhere to disembark, it had all been peachy.<p>

Now, that little adventure over, they were wandering around, trying to figure out what the heck they were going to do now.

"So, there's no train until tomorrow morning, the taxi company went broke two months ago, the buses just go around town…" Nico summarised glumly.

Jake sighed. "Well, we have to come up with something. We're running out of time."

They wandered into a tiny park, and sat on a bench. Nico stared out at the cars going by, when an idea hit him.

"Car rental!" he cried.

Alice gave him a sidelong look. "Huh?"

He jumped up. "Come on! Let's rent a car! I can drive!"

Jake nodded. "That's a great idea."

Forty minutes later, the heroes sat down on another bench, except this one was plastic and inside a McDonald's. After much searching, they'd found that the closest thing the small town had to a car rental was a rent-a-scooter service that only opened during the autumn months.

Nico chewed on a few soggy fries, as he stared out the window at the world that was going to be destroyed, all because they couldn't find a way to get across the country.

"We should have stayed on the train," Alice said darkly. "At least if we were in jail we wouldn't have to buy food."

Jake frowned. "Hey, talking of jail, are we going to be 'wanted' now? Is Nico di Angelo the new Percy Jackson?"

Nico shook his head. "No. Megaera will have to sort all that out, since she interfered with a fellow servant of the Underworld whilst that servant was performing a duty for the gods."

Alice looked at him blankly, before saying, "Do you actually _like _all that legalese?"

Nico laughed. "No. That's just how it's phrased in the Underworld Charter. I couldn't be bothered to re-phrase it."

Jake and Alice shared a look. "There's an Underworld Charter?" they both said at the same time.

Nico finished off his burger before explaining, "Yeah. It was written like a gazillion years ago. Zeus and Poseidon made Hades write it, but my father keeps it very hush-hush, stops the heroes finding out about it, in case they start trying to use it against him. It's about two thousand pages long."

Alice and Jake both looked very surprised by this, and Jake asked, "So, how do you know about it?"

Nico shrugged. "My father sent it to me as a fifteenth birthday present. The gift tag said 'Welcome to the House of Hades, my son.'"

Alice sipped her drink. "What, and you read it?"

Nico raised an eyebrow. "When an ancient deity, and your father to boot, sends you a book, don't you think reading it is the only option?"

Alice nodded. "True."

Jake snorted. "I bet that was a fun read."

Nico shook his head. "You have no idea. It was terrible."

He sighed, and was silent for a moment, thinking. The way things were going, he was failing terribly at his first quest before it even got off the ground. If only he'd sensed the Fury on the train, all this could have been avoided, at least for a little while. Some quest-leader I am, he thought grimly. The only good thing was Alice and Jake didn't seem to be blaming him for what happened, though they had every right to.

The three of them hadn't spoken yet about the events on the train, instead focussing on finding transport. Nico knew it was going to come up sooner or later. That was going to make for a distinctly awkward conversation.

He took another fry, before saying dejectedly, "Well, it looks like we're stuck here until tomorrow."

Alice nodded. "Yep. And since the gods can't interfere with us we don't…"

She trailed off as Nico stood up abruptly. He stared at the window, a look of astonishment on his face.

"B-but, that's not possible," he breathed, putting his hands on the window.

Jake looked at Nico, then at Alice, then back to Nico. "What is it?"

Nico turned to look at them, a grin on his face. "I think we've got a ride outta here."

The other two demigods looked out the window at what Nico had been staring at.

Two minutes ago, the car parking spaces in front of the fast food restaurant had been empty. Now, a golden-coloured sedan was parked at the centre of the parking spaces. Furthermore, the keys were in the driver's door and there was no one to be seen who could have been driving the car. And to top it all off, the license plate read SUNCAR II.

Nico looked at his quest-fellows, elated, and said, "Looks like someone upstairs has our backs! Come on!"

* * *

><p><strong>It may interest you to know (though it might not) that as things stand, this fic will have around sixteen chapters, approximately speaking. Don't forget to review!<strong>


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: Hello, again. Here's another update to this tale. I actually quite like this chapter, which is unusual for me as I usually can't stand my own writing by the time I finish a chapter. Anyway, enjoy and review!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. Tis all for fun.**

Rise of the Forgotten

Chapter 7: In Which People Talk

The happy novelty factor of getting a ride soon ran out, of course. "Our friend upstairs" (the euphemistic term Nico had decided to use for their benefactor for fear that the car would vanish if they named said benefactor outright) had installed a delightful little feature that caused the GPS system to read out haiku after haiku, rather than, say, read out directions. Despite Alice's distinct and poorly hidden glee at this development, Jake and Nico were _not _so pleased, and had decided to put as much stuff as they could between them and the speakers, in the hope of muffling the haiku-hailing GPS. This, of course, worked only partially, which meant that bits of haiku could still be heard.

Nico shook his head darkly, as they rolled down the road. "This is the last time I take any present from Ap— our friend upstairs."

Alice smiled slightly, adjusting the steering wheel. They were taking turns driving, though Alice was the only one with a license.

"Hey, at least our friend upstairs isn't obsessed with rock music at the moment. I heard that back in the sixties he was unbearable with his Elvis impersonations," she said.

Nico laughed ruefully. "Stop. You're giving me nightmares, and I'm not even asleep."

He gazed out the window, watching the sunlight slowly fade. They'd been driving all day, stopping only to pick up some snacks at a gas station. Jake was asleep in the back, worn out from a day that had included everything from being kidnapped by a deranged Underworld spirit to trying to get a ninety-year-old stationmaster to stop telling them how much they looked like his dead grandchildren and start telling them when the next train was due.

Nico glanced at Alice out of the corner of his eye. He still hadn't broached the topic of the Fury attack. He wasn't kidding himself why, either. He was afraid that if he asked her, she'd tell him that yes, she was in fact the thief. It would mean that he'd have to fight someone who he was just starting to trust. And he didn't let himself trust people very often, even after all these years.

He swallowed drily. Well, nothing for it, he decided. It had to be done.

"Alice," he said softly.

"Yes?" she replied, not taking her eyes off the road.

"About what happened on the train, do you have any idea why Megaera thought you had the Flame?"

Her expression remained calm, which Nico supposed was a good thing. If she'd suddenly twitched or looked uncomfortable it would have been damning evidence, by all accounts.

"No," she replied firmly. "I don't have the Flame, and I had no idea where it could be."

Nico let a sigh of relief. He'd gotten reasonably good at telling when people were lying to him, and Alice seemed to be telling the truth.

"Maybe Megaera was subverted in some way, or maybe she's working with the thief," Alice went on.

Nico shook his head. "I know the Furies better than I'd like, and I'm quite sure of one thing with them: they are fundamentally loyal to the House of Hades. Even during the Titan and Giant Wars, they remained completely loyal to my father."

Alice nodded. "Okay. So what about subversion? Could someone trick a Fury?"

Nico was silent, considering Alice's question, before saying, "I do know that it is next to impossible to lie directly to a Fury. They can tell almost instantly when someone tells them a mistruth. That's not to say they can't be deceived, it would just be very difficult. And why would someone go to the bother, anyway?"

"Perhaps someone who wanted to get the heat away from themselves?" Alice suggested.

"Ah," nodded Nico. "That makes sense. So maybe the thief, or someone working with them, did something to attract Meg's attention to us, so they could carry on doing whatever they're doing."

"But that begs the question: who is the thief?"

Nico sighed. "I don't know."

He went back to staring out the window, before another thought struck him. "And what was with the avenging-angel thing you had going on? For a minute there I thought you'd lost it, when you were hissing at Meg like that."

Alice was stonily silent for a few minutes, and Nico was just starting to wonder if she was going to answer, before she said, "It's my fatal flaw."

"Hub?" Nico asked eloquently.

"My fatal flaw, Nico, is anger. And I am extremely angry about how my mother nearly died. On the train, my anger just… got the better of me."

Nico nodded slowly. He knew all about fatal flaws. His own flaw, holding grudges, had nearly destroyed him on more than one occasion.

Jake shifted in the back seat, muttering in his sleep, before settling back down.

Nico's merciless teasing side came to the fore. "So… you and Jake."

Alice's expression certainly changed this time. She blushed, and leaned forward a little in her seat as if trying to see something in the distance. Nico pressed on, ignoring her attempts to block him out.

"You're back together again, then?"

She still didn't answer. Nico went on. "You can ignore me all you like, I'll just keep asking."

She sighed the sigh of defeat, and said quietly, "Yeah, we, uh, made up."

Nico chuckled. "In more ways than one, too."

Alice glanced at him, a small smile on her face.

Nico tapped her on the shoulder. "Seriously, though. Get a room or something. If I wanted to see people kissing, I'd watch a cheesy romance film."

She shrugged. "Sorry. It's just… we were talking, and then he kissed me, and I just felt this energy and fire in me and then we just got a bit carried away."

Nico held up his hand. "Alright, alright. Too much information. I'm glad for you guys and all, but… just, you know. Keep it to yourselves."

She nodded, focussing on the road again. Nico sat back in his chair, closing his eyes. He knew he probably seemed a bit Puritanical the way he was going on, but his logic was that if Alice and Jake were busy being wrapped up in their… ahem, _romance_, the chances of them getting caught off-guard were a lot higher. And none of them could afford to be caught off-guard.

And it was with these cheery meditations upon his mind that Nico drifted off to sleep.

* * *

><p>After a pleasant, peaceful sleep, Nico woke to a sunlit road, with chirping birds and happy animals all around.<p>

Yeah, right.

In the real world, Nico had but two or three minutes of peaceful sleep before it was disrupted by a miserable excuse for a so-called dream.

He found himself in, surprisingly enough, a dark cave. He sighed to himself. Honestly. Couldn't he get psychically transported to a green field for these visions? Contrary to popular belief, he wasn't _completely _enamoured with the shadows. Even he liked a bit of of sunshine and flowers, if only just a little. But don't you dare tell anyone.

Anyway, getting back to the dark cave. It was very dark indeed. Not completely dark, of course. If it were completely dark he wouldn't have been able to tell it was a cave.

After a moment or two of peering around in a bewildered manner, the silence was broken. Sort of, anyway. The silence wasn't broken by ominous voices discussing their plans to overtake the world in darkness, as you might expect. In fact, it wasn't the silence exactly that was broken so much as the relative peace in Nico's head. One minute, he was thinking about the dreamscape, the next, his head was filled with alien thoughts.

It rather confused him for a few moments, and it took him a little time to get his mental bearings again. When he had done so, he realised the thoughts were those of two different entities being exchanged. It was, in fact, a psychic conversation, which Nico had unwittingly stumbled into. And, sure enough, the psychic conversers seemed to be discussing… plans to overtake the world in darkness. Or something along those lines.

Nico calmed his mind, putting aside the cheesiness and Jedi Knight-likeness of that statement, and focussed on the thoughts. They didn't have a voice, they were just like thoughts passing through Nico's mind normally, only the thoughts weren't his own.

He noticed a slight difference, however: some of thoughts had a sense of age and power to them, while the others had a sense of youth and scheming.

The thoughts alternated, like this.

—How goes the delivery?

—Very well. All plans proceed as you commanded.

—Did they? Was the intervention of the creature commanded?

—No, my lady. It was unavoidable, however.

—See that it does not occur again.

The thought exchange paused, as if the thinkers were considering privately.

The younger thinker thought next.

—Is your ascent proceeding well, my lady?

There was a stony silence from the other thinker, before a reply floated through.

—Do not concern yourself with that. Focus on getting the items to me as soon as possible.

—Yes, my lady.

It was quiet in Nico's head again, and he felt the dream fall away. Clearly the psychic meeting was over, he thought, just before falling back into a deep, dreamless sleep.

* * *

><p>He was shaken awake what felt like a short time later, though when he opened his eyes and glanced at the car clock he found that he'd been asleep for three hours.<p>

He glanced across to Alice, who had her hand in his shoulder where she'd nudged him awake. The car was parked at the side of the road, and judging by the rustling in the back of the car, Jake was just waking up, too. Mercy of mercies, the haiku-hailing GPS had finally shut up.

"It's your turn to drive," Alice said quietly, unbuckling her seatbelt. "I'm going to sleep in the back now."

Nico nodded slowly, closing his eyes for a moment. "Give me a minute," he muttered.

He sat there, still, considering his dream. Clearly the thief of the Flame and the thief's boss had been communicating, and he'd stumbled into it. Unfortunately, it didn't do him much good, as the two conspirators hadn't been speaking, exactly, so there was no identifiable voice he could use to help find the thief. On the bright side, Nico knew now the Flame hadn't yet been brought to the head bad guy, as it were, which was a small relief.

He sat forward slowly, stiff from sleeping sitting up. Maybe Jake would have some insight on the dream, Nico decided, as he got out of the car and walked around to the driver's side.

A few moments later, Alice was comfortably situated on the back two seats, drifting off. Jake was in the passenger seat, rubbing his eyes, and Nico was running through how to drive in his head. The last thing they needed was a car crash.

Once the son of Hades had his head in order, he turned the key in the ignition, pulling out and moving off.

Jake and Nico were both quiet for a few moments, before the son of Erebus glanced at Nico and said, "So what do you think of what happened on the train?"

Nico shrugged. "The Fury was obviously tricked somehow."

Out of the corner of his eye, Nico saw Jake frown.

"So, you're sure Alice isn't the thief?" Jake asked.

Nico raised his eyebrows, surprised. He paused before answering, listening to hear if Alice was asleep. Sure enough, he could hear her breath was slow and regular, as if she was in a deep sleep.

Finally he answered Jake. "Yes, I'm sure. Why, are you not?"

The demigod replied quickly. "No, no, I was just wondering what you thought. I mean, I know Alice can let her anger overcome her sometimes, but she wouldn't go _that _far."

Nico nodded. "That's what I thought. So, do you know anyone at camp who might be doing this? Anyone talking about bringing down the gods or something like that?"

Jake considered this for a moment, before responding, "No. Not at all."

Nico scratched his head. "Well, maybe it's someone we haven't heard of or met."

Jake nodded vigorously. "Yeah. That's what it looks like."

Nico was quiet a moment, before he said, "I had a rather weird dream."

He went on to recount the dream to Jake, who looked somewhat surprised by it. Once Nico had finished, Jake sat looking pensive and ponderous.

"So what do you think?" Nico asked, after Jake had mulled it over for a few minutes.

Jake sighed. "I don't know. It's a strange one, that's for sure. I don't know who or what could communicate like that. I've heard of thought-communes, where people shared their mind in a trance-like state, but I've not come across anything like what you're talking about."

"Oh well," said Nico. "There's nothing we can do about it, anyway, except keep moving."

Jake nodded. "Yep. Keep moving. That's our main priority."

Nico drove on, thinking. There was something else, something fishy about this whole thing, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

Suddenly it hit him. "That's it! That's what doesn't fit!" he exclaimed.

Jake gave a sidelong look. "What doesn't fit? What are you talking about?"

Nico sat up a bit straighter, sure he was on to something. "We know the thief isn't working alone. We also know the thief hasn't reached their final destination yet, which is probably Alcatraz. The thing is, the thief must have had help from someone, to get around Olympus security the way they did. They could probably get help to get themselves across the country as soon as possible. But the thief obviously hasn't gotten help; they're going across country the long way. But why? Why wouldn't they get a quick ride? It doesn't make sense!"

Nico paused, before going on, "So there must be some kind of ruse going on. The thief is trying to throw the gods off their trail, throw them for a loop somehow."

Jake frowned. "How the heck would doing something like that throw the gods for a loop? It doesn't track."

Nico shook his head. "Maybe not. But I'm sure there's more to this quest than we think. Why else would Ap— our friend upstairs be lending us a ride?"

"I see what you're saying, Nico," Jake replied. "The whole thing is like one big chess game."

Nico nodded grimly. "It's a game alright. A game of shadows."

He glanced up and down the road, looking for police, patrols or monsters. There weren't any.

"But luckily for the gods, I'm good with games," he muttered, pressing down on the accelerator. "And I'm even better with shadows."


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: It was like pulling teeth writing this chapter, so I really hope you all like it.**

**Be sure to review!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson, TVTropes or Apple Mac. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. Tis all for fun.**

Rise of the Forgotten

Chapter 8: Ghost Town.

"Did you ever _learn _to drive, Nico?" Alice asked bemusedly, as she did up her seat belt and turned the keys in the ignition.

Nico scowled, adjusting his own seat belt in the back. "Well. Not exactly. I sort of… picked it up," he muttered, with a whiff of impetuosity in his voice.

Jake glanced back at Nico. "That kind of driving isn't something you pick up, Nico," he said playfully. "It's the kind of driving someone has when they make it up as they go along."

Alice laughed, shaking her head. Nico's driving had been reasonably decent for a few hours, but when dawn broke and the shadows of the night were chased away, his driving had become less than stellar. Or, as Jake had so kindly phrased it, "slightly more discombobulating than being driven along the Grand Canyon by a deranged escapee panda bear."

Nico sighed. It wasn't _his _fault he could only drive well during the night. And the tree had been very poorly placed. Whoever had been responsible for planting it was undoubtedly a complete incompetent.

"Oh well," said Alice. "I'm sure our friend upstairs won't want the car back."

Nico snorted. "Hah. I bet our _friend _only gave us the car because he wanted to get rid of it. We'll probably find it has some major flaw by the time we get to Alcatraz."

As if on some kind of bizarre cue, the haiku-hailing GPS began its murmur of abominable syllables once again.

"Well, there's flaw number one," Jake said ruefully.

Nico groaned. The haikus were so bad they weren't even worth mentally registering. He applied his best brain-bleach technique, the kind of thing he used when he saw a fellow demigod slaughtered by rampaging monsters.

That done, he fell to pondering his quest, and all the merry things associated with it. He was beginning to get rather fed up with the whole situation. Why did people always have to be causing trouble? Did they not get tired of fighting the gods endlessly?

"What's that noise?" Alice asked suddenly, jolting Nico out of his thoughts.

He frowned. "What noise? The haikus?"

Alice shook her head. "No. It sounds like a horse's hooves."

Nico closed his eyes, listening hard. Sure enough, after a moment he heard the clip-clop of a horse trotting along a road.

He opened his eyes. "I hear it. That's weird."

He glanced out the back window. There wasn't a horse to be seen, just a couple of cars, and yet the clip-clopping sounded like it was coming closer. A blue Volkswagen Beetle overtook them, zooming by. The clip-clop began to fade away, as if the invisible horse had cantered by.

Alice glanced back at him. "Even by demigod standards, that was really weird."

Nico nodded. "Sure was. Did you hear it, Jake?"

Jake shrugged. "No. Though I felt a bunch of shadow energy pass us by."

"Maybe it's nothing," murmured Alice. "Perhaps it was a monster hunting down an entirely different bunch of half-bloods."

Nico laughed humourlessly. "Yeah. Hey, if we're really lucky, it was from a different pantheon altogether."

He settled back in his seat. "Of course, the last time I was really lucky, I was _just about _able to avoid being killed by Kronos's minions in a battle for Western Civilisation. So I won't hold out much hope for luck."

Jake took a small drink from their last bottle of water, before saying, "I was thinking that it's kind of odd that whoever is behind the theft hasn't sent anyone after us."

"Yeah, I was just thinking that," Nico replied thoughtfully. "I know we had Meg, but she was probably just misled. We haven't had any encounters with minions of the thief. Or, as my favourite website TVTropes might put it, we've yet to battle any Mooks sent by the Big Bad."

Jake looked at Nico excitedly. "You read TVTropes too?"

Nico smiled slightly. "Yep. And I tell you, we're a regular Power Trio."

Jake grinned back. "And the Flame is one hell of an annoying MacGuffin."

"Not only that, but I'm insanely Genre Savvy."

"And this car is a case of Applied—"

"Sweet Zeus!" Alice broke in. "What on earth are you two talking about?"

Nico rolled his eyes at Alice's ignorance. "Haven't you heard of TVTropes? It's this brilliant site that catalogues all the popular devices and idioms, or tropes, used in writing and storytelling."

Alice raised her eyebrows. "And where have you two gotten to surf the web? The camp doesn't have Internet."

Nico and Jake spoke at the same time. "Apple Mac."

Alice looked from Jake to Nico, and back again, bemused once again.

Nico explained. "A few months back, the Hephaestus cabin figured that Apple Macs can be modified to get onto the web safely, whereas it can't be done with Windows."

Jake picked up the thread. "So the Stolls smuggled in a couple of laptops, the Hephaestus guys worked on them for a while—"

"And so there is Internet at camp!" Nico declared. "If you know who to ask and are willing to pay the right amount of drachma."

Alice sighed. "And I thought I knew all the camp secrets. Honestly… well, you two enjoy your tropes discussion. I'll pull in at the next town."

And so Jake and Nico fell to discussing the merits of the various types of death tropes, such as Redemption Equals Death and Heroic Sacrifice.

* * *

><p>The town where the intrepid heroes stopped turned out to quite a ghost town. It was a grey and somber place, with creaky-looking buildings and remnants of the old west all around. There wasn't a building with more than four storeys, and not a storey with more than three intact windows.<p>

It was a strange thing about America, Nico mused as he got out of the car, that in one country there were huge cities, big enough to be small nations, with millions of people jostling for space to live, and yet there was also many, many abandoned or practically-abandoned towns like the one Nico found himself in, towns that had lots of living space but next to no-one wanting to live there.

It was proof of a long-held belief Nico had: that most of life was paradoxical in some way. His own life was a good example of this: when he was ten, he found a new family when he learned he was a half-blood, but at the same time he lost the only real family he ever had. And the life of most half-bloods was a huge paradox: demigods lived the life of adventure many mortals wished they had, and yet most half-bloods wished they could live like mortals.

So it was with these thoughts on his mind that Nico explored the paradoxical little town, a place that was an example of both old and modern America.

There were only a couple of shops open here and there, and Nico saw no one out walking the dusty roads of the town. He trudged down the main street slowly, Alice and Jake having gone off separately to look for a place to buy some fuel for the car.

The sun burned bright overhead, and Nico kept to the more shadowy side of the road, avoiding potential sunburn, something which he was somewhat more prone to than other demigods. A couple of glum-looking shopkeepers glowered out at him as they set up shop. He tried not to meet anyone's gaze, and kept moving right along.

Up ahead Nico spied a blue car parked outside the least-battered looking building on the whole street. As he drew nearer, he saw that the building was in fact a tavern that looked so much like an old-western drinking-house that Nico half-expected to see Clint Eastwood come marching out through the "batwing" doors.

Nico licked his bone-dry lips. He and his quest-fellows were running low in refreshments of all kinds. The tavern would be the perfect place to stock up. Of course, it was an equally good place to get killed, but you take the hand you're dealt.

The son of Hades crossed the street and walked towards the tavern, looking up and down the road as he went. He saw Alice, a little further down, going into a very small grocery store, and Jake, further down again, straightening up after tying his shoelace. Nico caught his eye and waved, gesturing at the tavern to indicate he was going in. Jake waved back and nodded, giving an encouraging thumbs-up.

Nico turned and strode through the batwing doors confidently, hoping he was about to find something helpful and not get attacked by angry, xenophobic locals.

The first thing he noticed as he came in was possibly the most important resident in the town: a large tomcat, lying, in a languid manner, on the ground near the door. The cat, which was possessing fur with delusions of whiteness and a countenance so glum that it made the feline fellow look as if he was contemplating suicide, let out a lethargic meow as Nico entered. That meow drew the attention of the other two people in the tavern to the half-blood, which in turn led Nico to focus on the two apparently human people in the saloon.

One of these supposed humans, which was what Nico considered them until he had further proof, was seated at the table nearest the door. Grizzled, wrinkled and hunched, the old fellow seated at the aforesaid table was a picture of age and distrust. His eyes, small and lacking of any twinkle, hovered over Nico for a moment, before flicking back to the large golden coin he had clasped in his crooked fingers.

Nico noted the coin looked distinctly like a drachma, before looking over at the other supposed human, who stood behind the bar, calmly polishing a glass. He, too, seemed to be a man, a young, healthy one, with a tanned complexion and a good build. He looked up from his cleaning and fixed his eyes, which seemed kind, yet had a glint of something in them that Nico didn't like, intently upon the son of Hades, who tensed slightly, ready to run for it if the man didn't like the look of him.

After a quiet but tense moment, the young man relaxed, putting the glass down and nodding at Nico cordially.

"Howdy," he said, in a distinct yet difficult to place accent.

Nico nodded back. "Hi. I saw your car out front. Me and my friends—"

He was cut off by a wheezing cackle from the old man, who dropped his coin onto the table with a clatter, and started muttering under his breath in a strange language, not Ancient Greek or Latin (if it had been Nico would have been running for the door), but nor was it a language Nico recognised.

The man behind the bar laughed freely. "Oh, don't mind him. My old pa, he's quite mad. Been here all these years, just me and him."

Nico nodded, looking at the younger man carefully, though out of the corner of his eye he noticed the old guy shake his head and pick the coin back up. Nico reached out with his demigod senses (or, as he called it, his Spirit-Spidey Sense), trying to feel if there was any strange spirits in the vicinity. He sensed nothing, though that wasn't wholly reassuring.

Feeling the eyes of the bartender on him, Nico stepped further into the tavern, which looked like a classic western saloon in all respects: old wooden tables and chairs, bottles of whiskey on the wall behind the counter, all the stuff Nico was familiar with from watching lots of - too many, even - old westerns.

The son of Hades cleared his throat, before saying, "Well, me and my friends need some gas and supplies. Um, do you know where we can some of that stuff?"

The young man nodded, reaching below the counter. "Sure. We've got some fuel out the back. Do you want a drink, too?"

He pulled out a bottle of nice cold Coke. Nico's thirst sat up on its hind legs and begged. Although it wasn't strictly the wisest idea in the world, he threw caution to the winds and approached the bar.

The bartender poured the Coke out in a glass, handing it to Nico, who promptly knocked back half the glass, before taking a couple of dollars from his pocket.

The young man shook his head. "No charge for a traveller."

"You sure?" Nico asked, surprised. "I'm guessing you don't get a lot of business."

The man shook his head. "It's fine," he said quietly. He offered Nico his hand. "I'm Phat, and that's Dom."

Dom the old man gave no reaction at the mention of his name, though the cat let out a quiet, almost bemused purr, as if to say that it was silly to be worrying about details such as names.

Nico shook Phat's hand. "I'm Nico," he said. He took another drink, then asked, "Is the town always this quiet?"

Phat nodded. "Yes. It's a quiet place, but good for those who want to stop and wait a while."

He said this in a pretty innocuous way, but there was something behind the words that unsettled Nico in a very vague way, as if Phat was saying something else, something more sinister.

"So where are you headed?" Phat asked cheerily, picking up a rag and rubbing the already spotless countertop with such vigour Nico almost expected the very wood to start peeling away.

"West Coast," Nico said. "Kind of a road trip thing."

The bartender sighed, and a slightly wistful look came to his eyes, as though Nico's words had reminded him of some dearly held memory.

"I used to do some of those," Phat said. "Back in my day, I was always zooming around."

Nico frowned, somewhat puzzled by someone who appeared to be as young as Phat did talking like they were quite old.

"Back in your day?" Nico asked in a benign sort of way, trying to sound neither overly curious nor unduly alarmed.

At this question, Dom, who had been heretofore muttering merely to himself and perhaps the cat, let out a loud snort, and directed a stream of incomprehensible dialogue at Nico, who, wary of making any eye contact with such a weird fellow, simply nodded vaguely in Dom's direction, whilst considering that the old man's mode of speech sounded familiar in some nebulous way.

Phat smiled in the way adults do when in the company of some backward child, and said, "Please, pay no notice to his babble."

He finished his incessant cleaning of the bar, looked at it with an approving eye, and nodded at it contently, as if to show his satisfaction that the countertop would not so much as consider being dirty. He glanced back up at Nico, who was watching with puzzlement, and, seeming to recall Nico's query, answered that question.

"Oh, I mean, of course, when I was your age," Phat said airily.

Nico nodded, momentarily placated, though he resolved to leave the saloon as soon as he finished his drink. Even if there was no Greek madness to be found at that saloon, that didn't preclude the possibility of other, more human, madnesses. Glancing down at the tomcat, who was now prancing around the room, Nico couldn't help but think that perhaps the feline was the most sensible being in the tavern.

Phat pulled a barstool out from some alcove beneath the bar. A nondescript green toolbox sat upon it, which Phat moved down to the ground carefully, muttering to himself as he did so, "Best be careful…important…"

That done, he perched himself on the bar stool and leaned his elbow on the bar in a relaxed way.

Nico's curiosity was piqued by the care given to the seemingly ordinary toolbox, and he asked Phat, "What's in the box?"

The bartender gave no indication that he had heard Nico, other than a slight hardening of his eyes and tightening of his features. After a moment of staring into the middle distance, however, he spoke.

"Oh, it's nothing, nothing," he said. "But do tell me, where on the West Coast are you headed? Alcatraz, perhaps? I hear that's a popular destination for questers at the moment."

Nico's blood ran cold at these words. He stared at the unassuming young man, who looked back with a calm, expressionless face, as though he had just revealed he knew the weather forecast.

"What?" Nico said quietly, trying not to seem panicky.

"Oh, don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about," Phat said, getting off his stool slowly.

Nico didn't respond, and Phat went on in a rolling, whimsical manner that seemed completely unfitting with the situation.

"I was just like you once," he said. "Eager to help the gods. Prove myself. I tried too hard one day, and I ended up in a right mess."

Nico stepped back slowly, his hand on the pommel of his sword, his mind racing a hundred miles a second. How long had he been in the bar? Had this all been a trap?

"It wasn't my fault, though," Phat muttered, talking more to himself than Nico. "It was my father's fault, really. He should have stopped me." Phat looked at Nico dead-on, his cold grey eyes boring into Nico's.

"He should have made sure I wasn't killed."

At these ominous words, all hell broke loose. Nico suddenly felt a great rippling of energy all around him, as if a still pond had just had its peace shattered by a huge boulder being thrown into it. After a second, Nico realised he was sensing the dropping of a huge energy veil, which up to then had been concealing the true energies that were emanating from Dom and Phat.

Nico stepped back towards the doors, drawing his sword while trying to process the information his demigod senses were feeding him. The energy around Phat was that of an escaped spirit, a dead man who'd somehow gotten out of the Underworld and been empowered by something, while Dom's energy seemed to be that of a very minor god or personification, but Nico had no idea what kind of personification.

All this processed through his mind in half-a-minute, so honed were his energy sensing abilities from the arduous Titan and Giant Wars. But the most annoying revelation came via his ears, for just then, Dom the personification jumped up from the table, glowing slightly as his disguise fell away.

He started talking in that weird language again, and Nico realised he wasn't talking in some exotic language, but in good old Pig Latin. Nico spat out at a curse as he mentally deciphered what Dom was saying, what he'd been saying since Nico had been fool enough to wander into the saloon.

"Foolish child of Hades," the spirit was muttering in its oh-so-secret code. "You thought you could beat us? We are the colonels of the Army of the Forgotten. I am the spirit Dolos, bringer of misery, and this is Pha—"

Alice burst through the batwing doors, hefting a large can of gasoline in one hand and a grocery bag in the other; Jake was a step behind her, his sword drawn.

She stared around the room briefly, before yelling, "Nico! There's something here! Something impossible!"

Despite the situation, Nico couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Gee, you think?" he muttered exasperatedly, backing up to stand shoulder to shoulder with Alice and Jake.

There was a flash of light, and the illusion around Phat and Dom fell away completely. Dom, or rather Dolos, became a more middle-aged man, and he radiated more power than before. His very clothes represented the misery he was a harbinger of: ripped and grey, hanging off him like rags upon a coatrack. The tomcat had vanished, and Nico realised the cat and Dom were both parts of Dolos, split in two temporarily to assist the disguise.

Phat had a much grander transformation, becoming taller and far more imposing. He leapt over the bar like some kind of huge armoured frog, before straightening up. Now, his head was clad in a full-face Roman helmet, and he wore a long red cloak and polished armour. In one hand he held an ominous Stygian spear, and in the other he had a pure black bow, frighteningly dark and deathly.

Alice cleared her throat with a distinct _gulp_.

"Nico," she said. "Do you know who that is?"

Phat took a step towards them, his eyes, still grey, but far harder and more terrifying.

"Nope," Nico said, trying not to squeak.

Alice looked at him, her eyes wide.

"Phaethon," she said. "Son of Apollo. The one who's been dead for centuries."


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: So, uh, hi. I know, I know, this has taken far too long to get up. Sorry 'bout that. I hope you enjoy it now that it is finally written!**

**Oh, and I'd like to give a shout-out and a thank you to Incendiarist, who left the 50th review for this fic. It's not much, but it means something to me.**

**Now, come on, people! Let's get to 60 reviews before the next chapter! Please?**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. Tis all for fun**.

Rise of the Forgotten.

Chapter 9: A Chase

Phaethon moved first.

He let out a gratuitously melodramatic yell, and darted towards Nico, who took a defensive stance with his sword, while reaching out with his powers, trying to use his ghost king mojo to influence or banish Phaethon.

He didn't get the chance to make a good stab at it, however. Alice stepped in front of Phaethon, hefting the can of gasoline, and did the last thing Nico would have expected from a trained half-blood.

She smashed the renegade son of Apollo in the side of the head with the metal can. Hard. So hard, in fact, that he was knocked off his feet. He fell onto a table, which overturned under his weight, and his spear dropped from his fingers, clattering to the floor.

Nico only had a second to regain his bearings, though, as Dolos came at them, his crooked fingers curved into a claw. He waved his hand and muttered a chant in Ancient Greek, summoning a small curtain of grey energy, which rushed at Nico, who ducked just in time. The energy sailed over him and smashed into one of the walls, making one Hades of a hole in it.

Dolos reached over his shoulder, and pulled, from what seemed to be thin air, a short black sword. He leapt at Nico like a deranged grey ape, swiping madly with his sword. Nico slashed upwards at the spirit of misery, forcing Dolos to jump all the way over Nico, landing right behind the half-blood.

Nico whirled around, blocking a waist-level slice just before it could turn him into diced demigod. He powered back at Dolos, putting him on the defensive, before easing back, as though he were tired. Dolos took this as encouragement, and the spirit took the fight to Nico, slicing and stabbing away at his guard.

Nico played possum for a few moments, letting Dolos get whipped up in a frenzy, before using his powers to create a very minor tremor in the earth just under Dolos's feet. This distracted the spirit, causing him to back off from his attack on Nico, who used the opening to break out his more direct physical skills, and kicked the spirit hard in the chest, knocking him out through the batwing doors.

This gave the son of Hades the second he needed to use his powers. He snapped his fingers and plunged his Stygian sword into the ground.

"Serve me," he muttered, concentrating hard. "Serve me. Serve me!"

The ground rumbled, before opening around Nico's sword. A skeletal warrior sprung out of the ground like a jack out of a box, laden down with weapons and armour. It seemed to be from the Revolutionary War, but Nico didn't have time to check as Dolos surged back through the doors of the tavern. Nico waved his hand and focussed his will, directing his skeletal servant to attack Dolos. The warrior complied, leaping onto the spirit and holding him down with one hand, whilst battering him over the head with one of its ribs with the other.

Nico looked around at Alice and Jake, who were having a two-on-one fight against Phaethon. The tables and chairs around the combatants had been reduced to mere matchwood, so ferocious was the battle. Alice kept trying to nail Phaethon in the head with the gas can, but her opponent, clearly not one to make the same mistake twice, kept avoiding her swings. Phaethon, having regained both his spear and his composure, was holding off both of Nico's friends with unnerving ease, and seemed to be barely breaking a sweat, now that he'd recovered from Alice's first blow.

Nico stabbed his blade into the floor again, and summoned a second warrior. This one was also a Revolutionary War cadaver; Nico sent it at Phaethon, who was momentarily confused by the appearance of the soldier, and so made the mistake of taking his eyes off Alice, who hammered him a second time.

"Run!" Nico yelled. Alice and Jake bolted for the door, Nico taking up the rear as he invested more of his energy in the skeletons. Dolos had done some damage to the warrior attacking him, but the skeletal construct continued on beating up the spirit with a wide variety of bones. Phaethon wasn't faring too well, either: the warrior accosting him was beating up the son of Apollo with his ostentatious helmet.

"Come on, Nico!" Jake called out, and Nico hurried through the doors of the tavern. He started after his friends, who were running for the car, before pausing. He felt a ripple as one of the warriors was destroyed: one of the side effects of being a son of Hades was that he sensed it whenever one of his summoned warriors was damaged or terminated. He focussed hard one more time, and clapped his hands together, drawing up a ten-foot wall of rock in front of the tavern, just like he had done all those years ago on Mount Othrys.

Then, satisfied he'd done all he could to buy some time, Nico quite literally ran like his life depended on it.

* * *

><p>He caught up with his quest-fellows as they reached the car. One or two shopkeepers along the street were looking out of their front windows or doors with a curious and quizzical look on their faces, though none seemed to be too concerned, which rather relieved Nico. He did see one man standing in a shop door, holding what appeared to be a sweeping brush, and scowling out at the half-bloods, but the guy wasn't getting in Nico's way, and that was all the son of Hades cared about.<p>

Alice tossed the can of gasoline to Jake, who set about pouring it down the gas opening thing - Nico could never remember the name of it, which was probably another reason why his mechanical skills were on par with those of a teddy bear. Though, judging by the way Jake was fumbling with the gas can, Nico had a feeling he wasn't the only mechanically inept half-blood on the quest.

"Will that stone wall hold them?" Alice asked, shifting around nervously on the spot.

A CRASH of not inconsiderable loudness echoed down the street. Nico winced.

"There goes Warrior #2," he muttered. He shook his head, the dizziness from using his powers so much kicking in at last. He held onto the car roof for a minute, breathing slowly and carefully, before his head began to clear again.

"Umm, the stone," he finally said. "It depends. Dolos might be able to blast through it. We've got a few minutes, I'd say."

Alice nodded. "Okay. Any idea why they want to kill us so badly?"

"Nope," said Nico. "But then what would I know? I'm the moron who walked into the trap."

Jake looked at Nico sharply. "You think they were waiting for us?"

Nico wheeled around and pointed up the street. "See that blue car outside the tavern?" he said.

"Yeah…" Alice and Jake said simultaneously.

Nico sighed, rubbing his forehead as he fought back another wave of dizziness. "That's a Volkswagen Beetle," he explained. "It's the _same_ Volkswagen Beetle that passed us by back when we heard the horse's hooves."

"Ohhh," Jake breathed, comprehension dawning on his face. "That's the shadow energy I sensed?"

"Yeah." said Nico darkly. "And the genius son of Hades here didn't notice it when he wandered into the trap."

Alice shrugged. "Don't worry about it. We all make mistakes."

Jake finally finished pouring the gas in, and the half-bloods got into the car, Alice taking the wheel on account of her being the best driver out of the three of them.

She started up the car. "So, shall we drive away nice and casual, or make like crazy bank robbers?" she asked, with a tone of slight irony.

Nico gave her his best "seriously?" look. She shrugged.

"All right," she muttered. "Crazy bank robbers it is."

And with that, they sped off, out of the town, neither into the sunset nor into the sunrise, which Nico thought was rather a missed opportunity, considering they were leaving a ghost town at high speed while being chased by bad guys.

* * *

><p>They got as far as the main road before hearing the horses again.<p>

Nico groaned. He turned around to look out the back window, and, like a shot from a movie, there it was: a chariot that looked a couple of thousand years old, in terms of design, and yet also brand new, in terms of, well, newness. Five quite frightening horses were attached to it, and although Nico couldn't make out exactly what they looked like, suffice to say they weren't friendly, earthly, or in any way normal.

Oh yeah, and guess who were riding the chariot? That's right. Phat and Dom, your friendly local Greco-Roman crazies.

Alice shook her head. "How can Phaethon be even here? He's meant to be kind of, you know, _dead_."

Nico massaged his temples, trying to break up the headache that was building up after throwing around so much demigod power. He was also having something of an existential battle over his woefully ineffective leadership, but he tried to put that aside and deal with the more immediate crises.

"He could be a leftover from the Giant War," he said. "There was a lot of turmoil when the Doors of Death closed, and it's possible a few spirits weren't recaptured, or maybe a few souls escaped at the last minute and didn't get rounded up."

"So how does this work? Phaethon skips out of the Underworld, gets himself a chariot, and hides out in a ghost town?" Jake asked, looking somewhat harried himself.

Nico shrugged, slightly frantic, trying to think of a way to stop their pursuers. "Oh, I don't know," he said, somewhat sardonically. "Couldn't be anything to do with the Flame, could it?"

Alice began to speak, but was cut off by a sharp and shrill scraping noise. It grew nearer and louder, and grew so jarring that Nico had to cover his ears, before stopping entirely, just as a pitch-black arrow embedded itself in the road a little to the left of the car. The ground immediately around the arrow crumpled as it hit, and many cracks appeared, spreading like a spider's web from the sharp tip and continuing for about six inches before stopping.

Nico looked back at the damage with a dark gaze as they sped down the road.

He looked at Alice and Jake. "Right," he said in a mock-cheery tone. "We really don't want to get hit by those arrows."

This instruction was punctuated by a second scraping noise, the arrow this time landing a few feet ahead of the car.

Nico looked again at the crazy charioteers. He was less than reassured to see that those very lunatics were gaining, completely defying the logic that five horsepower are not greater than a hundred. As ever, the mortals in the normal vehicles were completely ignoring the mythological apparition.

Nico shook his head. He knew he wouldn't be able to summon another skeleton warrior while on the move, but if they stopped for more than a few seconds the spirited pursuers would have a clear target for their arrows.

He looked up at the sky. If it had been a shadowy day he might have been able to cloak the car with Jake's help, but the sky was clear and the sun was bright, which was both extremely annoying and gratingly incongruous with the current situation.

"Oh, gods," Nico muttered. "I'd do anything for a little help right now. I'd even tell Apollo that his haikus are good."

He buried his head in his hands and closed his eyes, praying to his father to send him something, anything. He was so distracted it took him a moment to realise the car had stopped moving.

"Umm, Nico?" Jake said in a worried tone. "We've kind of stopped."

Nico's eyes snapped open. The car was completely frozen in the middle of the road: not even the engine was making a sound. The only thing still working was the GPS, which was reciting faster and faster.

Jake looked out the back window. "This is just surreal," Nico heard him mutter.

"Surreal?" Alice cried, starting to lose it. "Oh, my gods. What's happened?"

The car just sat there, and Nico started to panic. The scraping noise sounded through the air again, and one of the car's rear view mirrors was smashed off the car by an arrow. Nico kicked at the car, cursing, but nothing happened, apart from the haikus growing louder and louder, before suddenly pausing in a painfully dramatic way. Then, Nico's eardrums nearly blew as the GPS roared out:

AND APOLLO RULES, O.K.

And with that, the car clunked, creaked, shuddered, and suddenly shot off down the road at about three times its previous speed.

Nico's jaw dropped open, as they sped away from the spirit and the soldier, who had looks of great astonishment on their faces, having been within seconds of catching their quarry, only to be completely foiled.

The demigods burst into simultaneous fits of manic laughter, as the SUNCAR II acted like its namesake and made the situation a heck of a lot sunnier.

"Holy Zeus," Jake said, taking a breath. "That was the closest shave I've ever had."

Nico snorted. "For a minute there I felt like a fish in a barrel." He shook his head again before going on, "Trust Apollo to give the car a feature like _that_."

Alice shook her own head, looking rather manic. "I mean, honestly?" she spluttered. "Having the turbo mode be activated like that?"

"I guess it shows how conceited our friend upstairs is," Jake said, though he said it very, very quietly.

The three of them sat in silence for a while, regaining their composure after the chase. The adrenaline rush slowly wore off for Nico, and he started to think coherently for the first time since Phaethon had revealed himself. He reflected on what Phaethon had said back at the tavern, and he asked what was clearly the most pertinent question.

"What's Phaethon got to do with all of this?" Nico said thoughtfully, fiddling with the zipper on his jacket.

Jake sat forward. "Well, what do we know about Phaethon from the myths?"

Nico glanced at Alice, who piped up, saying, "He was the only child of Apollo to drive the sun chariot, according to some stories."

Jake nodded, and said, "Yeah. He made his dad let him do it, so as to prove that his father really was Apollo."

"And he failed miserably at driving the chariot, scorching the earth and setting fire to the land, so Zeus blasted him out of the air?" Nico said.

Alice sighed. "Yep. He really made a mess of himself."

Jake laughed. "Yeah, you could say that."

Nico pretended not to notice Alice's slight blush at Jake's laugh, and went on, "But what doesn't make sense, is why he would care about the Flame?"

He sat in thought for a moment more, before something Dolos had said to him returned to his mind.

"Dolos said something about… the Army of the Forgotten?" Nico said. "He said he and Phaethon were colonels or something. Anyone know what that means?"

"Nope," Alice replied.

Jake was silent for a minute, as though considering something, before he answered, "Um, I have heard of that, actually."

Nico looked at him, somewhat surprised. "Really? What do you know about it?"

Jake shrugged. "I'm not sure of the details," he said. "But I once heard of a group called the Army of the Forgotten. According to some people, this group is a champion of the lesser known entities of Greek mythology. They've been knocking around for a long time, but I don't think they've really gotten anywhere or had any big victories, from what I've heard."

Nico nodded, taking this in. Jake went on.

"I do know that this group was on Kronos's side during the war, but they kept in the background. So, maybe now they've gotten some power or something, and they're making a stab at Olympus?" he said.

"Maybe," Alice replied. "But what are the aims of the group? What do they want?"

Jake sighed. "The information I got about it was vague, but it seems they want to overturn the current ruling gods on Olympus and make a certain bunch of entities the new masters."

Nico frowned. "And who are the entities? Minor gods? Spirits?"

"Some spirits, yes," said Jake. "It's a big group, this Army, quite diverse, with different factions, so different people want different gods or spirits or even titans to be in charge."

"Where did you learn about all this?" Nico asked curiously, looking back at Jake, who smiled slightly.

"My father sent me this book of obscure eldritch lore as a birthday present one year," he said. "It's quite entertaining in parts."

Alice laughed. "Jeez, the gods of shadows and death seem to be pretty fond of giving their kids books, don't they?"

Nico gave Alice a look of pseudo-shock. "What? Are you saying Apollo doesn't give you books?"

"Certainly not!" she cried. "He gave me those sun grenades one year, and exploding arr—"

"Hold on," Nico interrupted. "Sun grenades? What are those?"

"Remember back on the train, when we were fighting Meg and there was a strong flash of light?" Alice said.

"Yeah?"

"Well, I had let off a sun grenade that time. It overloads the senses of anyone nearby with pure sunlight, but it doesn't effect children of Apollo," Alice explained.

Nico shook his head in disbelief. "So, not only do us shadow-demigods get shafted socially, but we get bad birthday presents too!"

"There's no justice in this world, there really isn't," Jake said glumly.

Nico laughed darkly. "Well, when a person can't even have a nice, normal race across the country to get to an ancient mythological site without getting attacked by someone who ought to be dead, I think you can pretty much rule out the possibility of there being _justice_ in the world."

He sighed forcefully, before muttering, "And there endeth the speech."


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: And here be Chapter 10! It took so long this time because I was writing a prompt-fic as well, so.**

**There's a Dresden Files reference in there somewhere. Watch out for it. XD**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. Tis all for fun.**

Rise of the Forgotten.

Chapter 10: Shots in the Dark

The rest of the day passed off uneventfully, which was fine by Nico, who preferred to limit his potentially fatal experiences to one per day. Finally, as the sun sank in the sky and night drew its veil across the land, the demigods pulled in at an old and battered-looking motel.

"Sure you don't want to keep on going?" Jake asked, as he turned off the engine.

Nico shook his head emphatically, and said, "No. We really need to get a proper rest."

Jake shrugged. "Alright."

They got out of the car and headed into the motel, which was three storeys tall, and looked as if it had been ancient when Olympus had come to America. The lobby was poorly lit, with several free-standing lamps dotted around the room, few of which were lit, and even fewer of which were bright. The strong smell of smoke filled the air, making Nico wrinkle his nose in mild disgust, and though the night was mild, the room was surprisingly hot and stuffy. All these things made the room feel much less like a lobby and far more like a furnace.

As Nico walked further into the lobby, he made out the shape of a desk, and a man slumped on a stool behind it. A single candle burned on the desk, which gave Nico just enough light to make out the features of the man.

He was dozing, his chin resting on his chest. He had a ruddy complexion, with black bushy eyebrows and a big nose and mouth. His tangle of hair was also bushy and black, though it had a few streaks of grey, and he had a beard that looked as clean and tidy as a storm-battered gorse bush.

He didn't stir as Nico approached. The son of Hades stopped in front of the desk, eyeing the man warily. Jake and Alice hovered a few steps behind Nico, and he could sense their unease. Given the typical experiences a demigod could expect on a quest, there was always a chance that something deadly and dangerous could happen at any moment. Nico felt pretty sure that the man was human, but then, after the incident with Phaethon, he didn't feel quite as confident as usual.

An open box of cigars sat upon the desk, and from the man's mouth a cigar hung. From the cigars and the smell of smoke, Nico figured the man was a heavy smoker. Oddly enough, he found this reassuring, for he'd never come across a monster who smoked. Health-conscious monsters, now there's a crazy idea.

After about a minute of staring at the bearded man, Nico cleared his throat loudly, in the hope of rousing the man. When this had no effect, he tried again, more loudly, and once more. All these attempts come to naught, and Nico had no choice but to overcome his wariness and tap the man on the shoulder, though he was by no means rushing into it. But, as he reached his hand towards the man (with an air of one putting his hand into the mouth of a rabid dog), the man suddenly jerked, as though waking from a violent dream. Nico quickly took a step back, his hand unconsciously stealing towards the hilt of his sword.

The bearded man straightened up slowly, stretching his arms out. He rubbed at his eyes with one scarred hand, before opening those eyes, revealing them to be big, black, and bleary.

He noticed Nico for the first time, and seemed, for a moment, strangely discomfited, as though he knew Nico, and was afraid of him. However, the moment of unease passed in an instant; indeed it vanished so quickly Nico thought he'd imagined it. The man stood up slowly, surveying the three teenagers with an air of benevolent bemusement.

The man opened his mouth and said, none too cheerily, "What do you want?"

Despite the gruffness of the man's manner, Nico relaxed somewhat. After all, he had never come across a disguised monster who was openly and immediately hostile towards a demigod. Those monsters always had to act real nice at the outset, perhaps because of some strange monsterian code of conduct.

"We would like to book a room," Nico said levelly, being careful to be neither overly aggressive nor excessively passive. The bushy-browed man narrowed his eyes, looking at the half-bloods with some suspicion. But, upon Nico producing a wad of cash of not inconsiderable size, the man nodded to himself, and relaxed.

He sat back down, and pulled a large, hardback notebook from a drawer. He took down the names of Nico and his friends, before taking the money for the night's stay.

"Here's the key," the man said, handing Nico a key, surprisingly enough. "Head on up those stairs and it's the first one on the left."

"Thanks," replied Nico, taking the key and heading towards the aforementioned stairs. He hurried up the stairs, Alice and Jake right on his heels. He called a few words of instruction to them, and surged ahead, up to the room. The son of Hades burst into the room they'd been given with a great deal more drama and fuss than one would normally expect, but then he _had_ had at least two bad experiences involving a monster cunningly hidden in a motel room.

After a moment of staring around wildly, Nico returned his sword (which he had drawn in a preparatory fashion on his way up the stairs) to its sheath, and took to staring intently into space and feeling out with his senses, searching for any malevolent presences. Not finding any, he beckoned Alice and Jake (whom he had directed to stay outside whilst he secured the area) to come into the room.

Once they'd entered, he closed the door quickly, pulling the chain across. Finally, he took a piece of black chalk (to be found all along the banks of the River Styx) from his back pocket, and drew a symbol, that looked curiously like a skull eating a snake, upon the door. He looked at it, nodded with satisfaction, and turned around to find his friends looking at him with a considerable degree of astonishment.

"Nico," Alice said tentatively, "do you ever think that maybe you're a bit, you know…"

"Paranoid?" Nico replied, striding over to a bed and flopping down on it. "Probably. But just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean an monster isn't about to have me for dinner."

* * *

><p>"So what does that skull picture thing actually do, Nico?" Alice asked from her position on her bed.<p>

The three of them were resting on the somewhat lumpy and uneven beds, which actually felt very comfortable after being cooped up in a car for so long.

"It's a protective symbol," Nico said. "It's very basic magic. Basically it generates a weak energy shield around the door. It wouldn't keep out a really powerful monster, but it should hold off any weaker monsters, like dracaena and Canad— I mean, Laistrygonians."

Jake gave him a slightly worried look. "_Should_ hold them off?"

Nico laughed slightly. "Er, yeah," he said. "Hey, I'm not a Hecate kid. It's not completely guaranteed."

Alice put her head in her hands. "Gods. Nico, you won't be winning any awards for your assuring and encouraging skills."

"That's for sure," Jake agreed, getting off the bed. He moved over to the low wooden table that was in a corner of the room, and pulled it over in front of the door. That done, he fell back onto the bed.

"So how many powers and stuff do you have, Nico?" Jake asked.

"Yeah!" chimed in Alice. "You seem to have a lot of them."

Nico sighed in mock-exasperation. He'd had this conversation with many an inquisitive half-blood at camp, but he decided to humour his companions.

"Well, let's see," he said thoughtfully. "I have a little power over the ground, which means I can make little fissures and so on. Then, obviously, I have power over the dead, which involves a splash of necromancy, affinity with ghosts, and it occasionally means that I have to perform an exorcism."

"Exorcism?" Alice repeated in surprise.

Nico nodded. "Oh, yeah. You'd be amazed by the amount of genuinely haunted houses that are out there."

He paused, enjoying Alice and Jake's disbelieving stares, before continuing. "But what I'm really good at it," he said, "is umbrakinetics."

"Umbra—what now?" Alice said, frowning in confusion.

"Umbrakinetics is the manipulation of shadows by the mind," Nico explained. "It includes shadow-travel, shadow-concealment, like what I did on the train, and shadow-projection."

This time Jake was the one to be confused. "Shadow-projection?" he said. "I've never heard of that. Is it some special son-of-Hades thing?"

Nico grinned to himself, as he began to explain his favourite demigodly trick. He always enjoyed telling people about this one, for invariably it got quite a reaction. Nico was, without doubt, at heart a show-off.

"Shadow-projection," he began, before stopping to dramatically take a sip of water. When he felt he'd milked the theatrics to a satisfactory extent, he continued. "Shadow-projection is the creation of an image or a construct through the manipulation of shadows."

Alice gestured at him to continue, clearly not wanting to have to sit through more suspense.

"The images and constructs that can be created vary widely, depending on the skill of the shadow-manipulator and the tools that they have available."

"What kind of tools do you need?" Jake asked, intrigued.

Nico shrugged. "It depends. If you just want to make an image of an inanimate object, you don't need any tools. But if you want to make a high-level illusion, perhaps a construct of a living person, then you need a grade-A Stygian crystal, in order to channel the energy and and link it with the template.

"A template is simply the person or thing that you're making a projection of. Using the crystal, some shadow energy and a Hades load of concentration, you can render a convincing projection of the template. Of course, you need some natural talent, too, which I have."

"Wow," murmured Jake. "That's pretty cool."

Nico nodded. "It is. It's a shame that it's so hard to get a crystal."

Alice and Jake said nothing, clearly taken aback by this ability of Nico's. He sat back, feeling rather smug. He had a particular fondness for impressing other people with his powers: he knew it was immature, but he didn't really care. After all, it made him feel more confident than he really was. It made him forget about the cold, empty space within him, the space that had never been quite filled, and probably never would.

It wasn't that he was a selfish person, or even that he wanted to feel superior. He simply wanted to distract himself from the lack of familial happiness that cast across his life a shadow so long and terrible that even he, with all his umbrakinetics and fancy powers, couldn't banish. Sure, people like Percy helped, but there was a void there, a void that could never be filled. So, he did what he could to forget about it, and he lived with it.

Honourable-minded gentleman that he was, however, he decided to let someone else go on about their magic powers.

"What about you, Alice?" he asked. "What cool things can you do?"

She laughed. "Oh, nothing as impressive as your powers. The main thing I can do is that I get very brief visions, sometimes, of important events that are about to happen. That's how I got to you in the tavern so quickly, because I got a sort of sense that you were in serious danger."

Jake chimed in, saying, "It was pretty weird. We were there getting the gasoline and she suddenly looked at me, all urgent and worried, and she just said, 'Nico's in danger!' I didn't have a clue what was going on for a minute there."

Alice blushed slightly, and said, "It _is_ weird. Sometimes it's like I can see what I have to do next drawn out in my mind like a map. It comes in handy, a lot, I can tell you."

"And, can you make yourself have a vision? Can you actively see the future?" Nico asked, intrigued.

Alice shook her head. "No. At least, I haven't managed that yet. I have tried, though, but it never works."

"That's a shame," Jake said. "How is it these magic powers always have a catch?"

Nico laughed. "Must be one of those everything-has-to-be-balanced things. It seems that, for whatever weird reason, we can't just go on a quest and get stuff done. It has to be /interesting/, too."

Jake rolled his eyes, and said, "Yes. Sometimes I feel like I'm a character in a book, I really do."

"Well, if you were a character in a book, you'd probably be Leaning on the Fourth Wall about now," Nico said jokingly.

Jake found this most amusing, and laughed considerably at it. Then he said, "Hey, if I was a character of some kind, and I said that I wished the author writing this book would let me go to sleep, what trope would that be?"

"I'd say that that would come very close to Breaking the Fourth Wall," Nico answered.

Jake started to say something else, but he was cut off by a loud sigh from Alice.

"You two and your tropes talk," she said exasperatedly. "I don't get it at all."

And on that note, the author decided to grant Jake's wish, and let the half-bloods go to sleep.

* * *

><p>Nico had a fleeting hope that perhaps now he would have a peaceful night's sleep. After all, he was reasonably safe, and he was very tired. Surely the gods would make sure he slept undisturbed?<p>

Yeah, yeah, and maybe whoever stole the Flame will hand it back cheerfully and willingly.

Though, luckily for Nico, his sleep wasn't haunted by dark dreams and vicious visions. Instead, his rest was broken by a very mortal sound.

He, and his friends, had been asleep for several hours, and all were lost to the world, when a gunshot rang out downstairs.

Nico jumped out of bed on pure reflex. Still mostly asleep, he fumbled around, trying to put on his bedside lamp and find his sword, all at the same time. He heard mumbles and rustles from his friends, as he finally got the light on. He checked that he still had his Stygian crystal safely around his neck, and he hurried over to the door.

"What's going on?" Alice hissed, getting out of bed herself.

Nico shook his head, and put his finger to his lips. He listened hard at the door, trying to hear if something was coming down the hall, but he heard nothing.

"There's nothing—" he started to say, but he was cut off as another gunshot sounded off. Jake, out of bed, came over and stood next to Nico.

"That doesn't sound like a normal gunshot," he murmured.

"What?" Nico said back.

"The shot, I've heard guns go off before, and it doesn't sound right," Jake replied, picking up his own sword and twirling it experimentally.

Alice rolled her eyes. "Someone is possibly being killed, and you're worried about what the gunshot sounds like?" she whisper-shouted.

As if to punctuate Alice's statement, the gun went off again, but now it sounded as if the gun, and, presumably, the gun-wielder had moved outside. Nico listened to the shot more carefully, and he heard what Jake was talking about. It sounded more metallic and grinding that a normal shot.

He reached out with his senses, feeling for presences of power, but he detected nothing. A door slammed downstairs, and all was silent again.

"Maybe it's just gangs or something," Alice said hopefully.

Nico nodded, thinking. Something was amiss, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He went over to the window, and looked out. Apart from the SUNCAR II, the car park was completely empty. Nico frowned, feeling a sense of nagging suspicion. Then, as he peered into the night, he realised what was wrong.

"Where _is_ everyone?" he blurted out.

Jake looked at him blankly, and came to the window. As he looked out, comprehension dawned on his face.

"Huh," he said.

"Yeah. Weird," Nico replied.

"What?" hissed Alice, again feeling left out of the loop.

Nico waved his hand at the window. "There's no other cars parked outside."

"So?"

"So how can we be the only people staying at this motel, on a busy summer night?" Jake supplied.

"Oh. That's… odd," Alice muttered.

Nico snorted. "You don't say." He turned back to the window, pensive.

Jake sighed, and said, "Should we leave, now, or wait till morning?"

Nico didn't respond right away, instead staring out the window, considering his options. Finally, he shook his head.

"No, you and Alice go back to bed. I'll keep watch," he said quietly, leaning against the windowsill.

Alice started to protest, but he overruled her, saying, "No! It's fine. I've stayed up late plenty of times, and someone has to stay up. If we leave now we might bump into whoever was shooting, and I doubt you want to do that?"

Nico looked at Alice and Jake with a sense of command in his gaze. After a moment of hesitation, they both obeyed his instructions, and went back to bed.

Nico, on the other hand, sat in the dark, watched, and thought.

* * *

><p><strong>If you like the story enough that you want to put it on your alerts or your favourites, please take the time to review.<strong>


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: All I can say about this chapter is, prepare to be confused.**

**There's a reference to Xed Alpha's Broken Bow series in there, and more references may pop up at a later stage. I do not own Broken Bow, but Xed, very kindly, gave me permission for these minor usages of his story.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. Tis all for fun.**

Rise of the Forgotten.

Chapter 11: Things Get Complicated

The rest of the night passed without incident, though for Nico, who sat thinking in the dark, the whole time, the night seemed to drag on and on. Minutes turned to hours as he turned what he knew and what he believed over and over in his mind. A whirlwind of emotions worked its way through him, as many previously hidden things became clear. After what felt like several days of deliberations, dawn broke, and the original sun car chased the shadows away.

The coming of the new day seemed to occasion a resolution in Nico, and with that came a change of mood. Indeed, by the time Jake had woken, the son of Hades was positively cheerful.

"Morning!" he said brightly, as Jake stretched and yawned.

"Morning," Jake mumbled, bleary-eyed. "Anything else weird happen?" he asked, after rubbing his eyes and straightening up.

Nico shook his head. "No, nothing. Just as well, too, 'cause it's not like the gods will give us a hand, is it?"

Jake nodded, though frowned, too, as he slid out of bed. He yawned again, then said, "Gods, you must have been bored out of your skull, here in the dark all night."

Nico shrugged. "I guess. It gave me time to think stuff out, y'know?"

Jake gave him a quizzical look, as he gathered up his clothes from where they were strewn around his bed. "How do you mean?" he asked, hunting for a sock.

"Oh, you know. I thought about what's important. Figured out what's going on. That kind of thing," Nico answered, standing up from his chair.

He paused, peering at Jake thoughtfully. Jake was searching under the bed, and didn't see the look Nico was giving him, a look that was rather odd, to say the least. Nico was gazing down at Jake as if he was seeing him for the first time, and was only now understanding something important.

"And?" Jake said as he stood up, clutching a ragged-looking black sock.

The look in Nico's eyes changed quickly, almost so fast as to be imperceptible. He went from looking at Jake with comprehension and perhaps even anger, to looking at his fellow umbrakinetic with familiarity and brotherliness.

The shift took barely a second, though, and so Jake didn't notice it. Nico then said, "Well, it would be reasonable for me to say that I have changed my views, on a few things, at any rate."

Jake started to respond to this cryptic statement, but he stopped short as the sounds of Alice waking up reached their ears. She yawned, and slowly sat up. Jake moved away from Nico, and headed into the bathroom.

"Morning, Nico," Alice said, her eyes almost shut.

Nico hesitated for a moment before replying, stopping as though he was unsure what to say. After an overly long moment, he simply said, in a flat voice, "Morning to you too."

He went back to his chair, and picked up his sword, which had been leaning against the wall. He sheathed it, looking out the window pensively, before sitting down with a clump.

He sat there for a while, glaring at the floor as if it were a chessboard. Alice got out of bed, and picked up her neatly arranged pile of clothes. She sat down on the edge of her bed, waiting for Jake to come out of the bathroom.

"No attacks or anything, then, Nico?" she said.

Nico grunted in the negative, not so much as glancing up from the floor.

Alice looked at him curiously, understandably perplexed by his behaviour. She asked some random question, and got a monosyllabic answer. Then she said, carefully, "Something wrong, Nico?"

Nico's features tightened, and he looked as if he were having some internal struggle. He glanced up at Alice, his face dark.

"No," he said, in an equally dark voice.

Alice stood up, her expression a mixture of concern and bewilderment. She started to say, "What—" , but just then the bathroom door opened, and Jake came out.

"Hey, guys, we'd better get going soon," he said, buckling on his sword.

Suddenly, Nico was responsive again, his expression brightening, or seeming to, at least. He jumped out of the chair with a spring that was greatly incongruous with his manner towards Alice.

"Yes," he said, "we don't have much time!"

With that, he hurried into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

* * *

><p>They checked out of the motel around twenty minutes later. The smoky man who'd checked them in the previous night was still there, though now he was practically sprawled upon the desk, snoring loudly. Propped against the back of the desk was an oddly shaped broomstick, which Nico spared a puzzled glance, before he woke the man with a prod to the shoulder.<p>

The man dealt them with them quickly and silently, and soon enough they were back in the car, driving on. Whilst all this took place, Alice had the same expression of annoyance and concern upon her features, and Jake had a look of someone not entirely understanding what was going on. Nico, on the other hand, looked cool and calm, as a mask of stillness obscured whatever was really in his mind.

He continued in his demeanour as he had at the motel: brusque and short towards Alice, yet cheerful towards Jake. He gave no reason for this behaviour, and his friends sought none, perhaps putting it down to his moody son-of-Hades nature.

After driving for an hour or so, Nico said to Jake, who was driving, "We should probably stop at a car wash or something, and IM Chiron."

"Alright." Jake replied. A half-mile or so later, they pulled in at a gas station. It was a quiet one: the forecourt was small, no cars were around, and the shop had but one attendant. Alice walked off into the shop, so as the attendant wouldn't be as quick to notice the juveniles making a rainbow over at the car wash.

Nico and Jake hurried over to that car wash. After taking a moment to root around for change, Nico started up the spray. The sky had been a little overcast earlier in the morning, but now, luckily, the sun had come out. It wasn't long until a rainbow formed in the mist.

Nico dug out from his pockets one of the drachmas he'd gotten from the camp's quest fund. He tossed into the rainbow, speaking the necessary supplication.

"Show me Chiron, at Camp Half-Blood," he murmured.

The rainbow slowly shimmered, and an image appeared. The aforesaid centaur could be seen standing on the porch of the Big House, talking in a consolatory way to a disgruntled-looking son of Apollo.

"Yes, Jonathan." Nico heard Chiron say. "I understand you're upset that the Ares campers destroyed your sonic arrows, but things like this _will_ happen if you insist on practicing your rhyming curses on them."

The son of Apollo started to reply, but Nico, not wanting to waste time, broke in.

"Chiron!" he cried. Jonathan jumped, and whirled around, but Chiron barely even blinked.

"Hello, Nico," he said, before saying to the son of Apollo, "We can discuss this further later."

Jonathan nodded, and hurried off. Chiron turned back to Nico, muttering something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like "stupid cabin feuds".

"How goes the quest, Nico?" he asked. "I hope there are no injuries?"

"Er, it's going pretty well," Nico said. He proceeded to give an account of the last few days, telling Chiron about the appearance of the Fury on the train, the incident with Phaethon and Dolos, and the gunshots in the night. He mentioned briefly about getting a car, though he didn't say from whom they'd gotten it, just to be on the safe side.

By the time Nico had finished his account, Chiron looked very concerned indeed. His face paled when Nico explained about Phaethon; now his brow was furrowed, his body tense.

"So what do you think of all that, Chiron?" Jake asked.

The centaur shook his head. "I don't like this at all," he said. "When Gaia and the giants were defeated, I thought that our troubles were over for another few decades. Now, when I hear that spirits such as Phaethon are loose, and the Flame of Olympus is stolen… I don't know. I have a feeling this is the beginning of something else, the start of a long game of chess."

Nico and Jake glanced at each other, a mixture of unease and confusion on their faces.

"You need to be careful when you reach Alcatraz, too," Chiron said.

Nico waved his hand dismissively. "Don't worry about that," he said airily. "I've been to Alcatraz before, don't forget."

"You have?" Chiron and Jake said simultaneously.

Nico nodded. "Yep. You recall Armani Dove, Chiron?"

Chiron frowned, looking both irritated and amused. Indeed, the expression on his face could only be described as that of someone thinking of a troublesome child.

"Yes…" he said slowly.

"Well, when Hades made Orion kidnap the Hunters, and Armani—"

"When Hades did _what_?" Jake interrupted.

Nico shrugged. "It's a long story, and not mine to tell. But when that happened, Armani ended up at Alcatraz, and I was with him. That was a pretty fun day."

Chiron nodded. "Ah, I remember now," he said. "I believe that was the time you accidentally made the Hunters hate you for life."

Jake's eyes widened. "You did _what_?" he said, aghast.

Nico waved both his hands, batting away the questions as if they were flies. "Details, details," he said. "The point is, I know Alcatraz pretty well, so all is well with that."

"I'm glad to hear that," the centaur replied, "but that's not what I was going to say. What I mean is, you must be exceedingly watchful, for there is a chance - a likely chance - that you'll find more than just the Flame."

Nico scowled. "What in the name of—"

The voice of Iris broke through. "Please insert another drachma for a further five minutes."

Chiron sighed. "You'd better go. May the gods and the Fates go with you. Keep up hope, fight on, and you can but prevail."

Hence, in classic dramatic style, the image faded, and the rainbow dissipated. Nico hung the spray gun back up, and the two of them headed towards the car. Alice caught up with them a moment later.

"How did that go?" she asked.

Jake started to tell her, and Nico sped up, going ahead a few steps. He walked a little beyond the car and stopped, thinking over what Chiron had said.

Nico had never seen Chiron look as uneasy as he had over the last few days. Even in the middle of the Giant War, Chiron had maintained complete composure. Indeed, as long as Nico had known the mentor of heroes, he'd been calm and and collected, so seeing him look even a little bit discomfited was enough to set off great big alarm bells in Nico's mind.

Hell, Nico himself had been feeling vaguely worried ever since he'd met Cyrus. He had a feeling that he hadn't experienced since that night at Westhover, all those years ago: the feeling of being at the start of a long, long journey.

Of course, there was always the chance he was just looking for drama, looking for some excitement to keep himself occupied. Adrenaline and adventure were what he lived off, even more so than most demigods, and things had been almost annoyingly quiet in the half-blood world for the last year or so.

As he gazed down the road, thinking about these cheerful matters, he gradually became aware of a faint clattering noise. He frowned, cocking his head to one side. The sound was growing louder, very gradually. A moment later, and Alice heard it too.

"What's that?" she said, walking over to Nico. "Don't tell me it's…"

"Horse hooves," Nico murmured, staring at the bend down the road as if it had done him a grievous personal injury.

Alice swallowed audibly. "But that means—"

Nico grimaced. "Hey, it could be just some guy with a horse-and-carriage," he said drily.

They both knew such a thing was impossible, however. If Murphy's Law says that what can go wrong will go wrong, Nico's Law says that under every single circumstance, everything will go completely wrong for a demigod. The only consolation was that there was no uncertainty about _whether_ things would go wrong, it was simply a question of how _badly_ things would get screwed up.

It was precisely this question that Nico was considering, as he listened to the horse hooves. He was no idiot: that sound was almost definitely Phaethon. Nico was working out whether it was best to stand and fight, in the hope of neutralising Phaethon, or to make a tactical retreat, and fight another day.

It didn't take him long to decide that discretion is, as the saying goes, the better part of valour. He opened the car door, and said, "Let's move."

Jake nodded, moving to get into the car.

That was when Dolos materialised, out of nowhere, in a blinding blast of light. He appeared directly behind Alice, and, before Nico could even blink, pulled a long black knife from a low-slung sheath on his hip. He seized Alice by the hair, and, pulling her against him, put the knife to her throat.

A dead silence fell over the four of them. It made for a strange and eerie picture: Nico and Jake standing on either side of the car, their swords now drawn; Dolos and Alice standing a few steps away, both very still, and the sound of the hooves growing ever louder, the half-bloods' doom coming ever closer.

Nico took half a step forwards, but he stopped abruptly when Dolos pressed the knife harder against Alice's neck. The spirit shook his head, and sneered at Nico.

"Stay where you are, godling," he whispered, "if you know what's good for you. Or rather, what's good for your friend."

He let out a wheezy cackle at the end of that, before falling silent.

The standoff stayed frozen for another minute, before the sound of the hooves reached a crescendo, and Phaethon came around the bend.

He trotted slowly towards them, his horses foaming from the hard ride. He looked at Nico, and Nico alone, and gave him a very wide, very evil, smile.

He stopped next to Alice and Dolos, and stepped out of the chariot. He gestured towards the horses in a sarcastically welcoming manner.

"Now, my dear demigods," Phaethon said softly. "Why don't you come with me?"


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: Random fact of the day: with the publishing of this chapter, I have now archived over 50,000 words on this site. Life, what art thou?**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. Tis all for fun.**

Rise of the Forgotten.

Chapter 12: Chariots of Fire

Nico eyed Phaethon with a mixture of anger and disbelief.

"Why would I do that? Do you really think I'm just going to hop into your chariot and do your bidding?" he asked, keeping his sword up.

Phaethon's smile didn't waver as he replied, "Yes."

Nico laughed, trying to sound wildly confident, but merely looking a little manic. "That's ridiculous. Do you even know who I am? How in the name of Hades can you expect such a thing?" he said, still chuckling slightly.

Phaethon's smile grew even wider, making it look like more of a leer than anything else. "Because," he murmured, "if you don't," he gestured towards Dolos. "_Your_ friend will die at the hand of _my_ friend," he finished, his leer fading as he stared at Nico in an implacable way.

Nico's jaw clenched as he stared at Phaethon. He lowered his sword to his side, but didn't drop it completely, and narrowed his eyes.

"So say I jump into your little chariot there," he said, waving at the chariot with his sword. "Then what? You kill me?"

Phaethon snorted. "No, no," he said cheerily. "Killing is easy. Killing is _boring_. No, you get into my chariot, and I will talk to you. Then, you will join us."

Nico rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure, whatever. And when I _don't_ join you?" he asked.

Phaethon sighed. "Well, I really doubt that you would be so foolish," he replied. "But if you do still insist on maintaining your, what do you call them, your…" he paused, waving his hand in the air. "It begins with an 'M'," he said.

"Morals?" Nico supplied.

"Ah! Yes, those!" Phaethon said happily. "If you insist on maintaining these moral things, I will then have no choice but to kill you."

Nico glanced over at Alice, who had stopped struggling against Dolos, for the spirit's knife was so tight against her skin. As he met her eyes, Alice glared back at him, trying to communicate with him. Nico realised she was telling him not to obey Phaethon, to let her be sacrificed for the good of the quest. As he took this in, a line from the prophecy came back into his mind, the line that no-one had mentioned since it had first come from the Oracle's lips.

_The child of the sun must be destroyed_

No, Nico thought firmly. There had to be another way to get out of this trap. He knew it was his responsibility to look after his companions on the quest, and he was a godsbedamned fool if he let Alice go that easily.

He turned back to Phaethon, who was regarding him coolly, awaiting his decision. Nico, though he could almost hear Alice screaming at him not to do it, dropped his sword to the ground. He heard a dull thud on his right as Jake did the same.

Phaethon clapped his hands together, making Nico start slightly. "Wonderful!" he cried. The son of Apollo hurried over to his chariot, and rummaged in a side compartment. He withdrew three pairs of black chains, and tossed one to Dolos, who used it to shackle Alice. Phaethon walked over to Nico, and began securing his hands.

"I'm so glad we came to this agreement," Phaethon muttered in Nico's ear, as he locked the first manacle.

"Have you had lessons?" Nico asked suddenly.

"What?" Phaethon said flatly, taken aback by the offbeat question.

Nico shrugged. "You've got the clichéd villain dialogue down pat, so I was just wondering if you'd gotten lessons in it," he said.

Phaethon didn't reply immediately. It wasn't until he'd finished binding Nico's hands that he said, "You can be as flippant as you like, di Angelo. It doesn't matter. The time of the gods is coming to an end, and there's nothing you can do about it."

Nico snorted.

"I'm sorry?" Phaethon spat, walking around to glare at Nico.

"Oh, nothing," Nico said, with a mocking smile. "It's just that I've heard that many, many times, and you know what? Everyone who's ever said that has been wrong."

Phaethon snatched up Nico's sword before stalking over to Jake to secure him too. That done, he led the two male demigods over to the chariot.

"So how does this work, Phaethon? What's your deal?" Nico said, walking slowly, hoping for something, anything, that could help them get free.

Phaethon stopped again, beckoning Dolos to come over to him. The spirit strolled over at his leisure, being careful to keep a tight hold on Alice.

"Your father let you do something stupid a couple of thousand years ago and now you want revenge?" Nico went on, trying to get a reaction.

Phaethon's eyes flicked up Nico's. The son of Apollo glared at the son of Hades, both of them holding their ground. The contrast between the two was stark, indeed, in that moment. Nico looked calm and reserved, while Phaethon looked downright furious. His hand stole towards his ornate sword hilt as he tried to stare Nico down.

"Don't even mention my _father_," Phaethon said, spitting out the last word as if it were a particularly nasty piece of excrement. "You know nothing of what happened."

"Oh yeah?" Nico countered. "I know you wanted to prove that Apollo was your father. I know that you made him promise on the River Styx to give you whatever you wanted, and then you asked to drive the sun chariot."

"You know your mythology well, godling," Phaethon said. "But you forget: Apollo is the god of prophecy. He could have foreseen my fate, and he could have used that knowledge to preserve me."

At this, Alice spoke for the first time since the appearance of Dolos. "That's not true," she said quietly. "Apollo cannot interfere in the affairs of mortals, not even in those of his children."

Phaethon's eyes blazed as he rounded on Alice. "Is that so, half-sister? Well, Apollo has been happy to find ways around the Ancient Laws in the past. He could do so for his child, could he not?"

Alice didn't make a verbal reply, instead merely shaking her head. This seemed to infuriate Phaethon even more, and, in less than a second, he surged forward. He slapped Alice in the face with a considerable amount of vitriolic rage. She didn't move, as Dolos was still holding her, but she glared back at Phaethon, refusing to agree with him. He raised his hand again, but paused, and thought better of it. He glanced back at Nico and Jake, and gestured to Dolos.

"Get them into the chariot," he ordered.

The spirit nodded, and ushered Alice around the horses into the chariot. Nico stared at those horses for a moment before Dolos came back around. The horses were completely black, naturally, though their manes had an odd sort of shine to them, as if they had been covered in diamond dust. The horses' eyes were the really scary thing, simply because they didn't have any. The area where their eyes should have been was black and flat, without even a socket.

"You like my beasts?" Phaethon said, in a tone similar to that of someone discussing a new car.

Nico gave him a dirty look, but he wasn't fazed. If anything, he looked a little more pleased.

"That's a no, then," Phaethon said. "Why so angry?"

"These are the horses of the Underworld, given by Poseidon to Hades as a conciliatory present after the Second Titan War, used to travel around the Underworld by the House of Hades," Nico said in a low voice.

Phaethon nodded. "Yes. And?"

Nico took another step towards the horses, looking at them with pity. "And you have somehow mutilated them, so as to use them for your transportation," he said.

"Well, mutilated is an awfully strong word to use," Phaethon replied. "Modified is far more appropriate."

"How did you do it?" Nico asked.

Phaethon walked over and put his hand on one of the horses' manes. "My patron took care of it," he said.

Nico raised his eyebrows, and looked at Phaethon quizzically.

"Your patron?" he said. "That wouldn't by any chance be the maniac who is behind the theft of the Flame of Olympus?"

"Subtle, aren't you?" Phaethon shot back.

Nico shrugged. "Doesn't matter if I'm subtle," he said. "What matters is the answer to my question."

"My patron is certainly, ah, connected with the recent events involving the Flame," Phaethon said coyly.

"Oh wow, I'm so surprised," Nico said sarcastically. "That's such a shock. How could an escapee spirit rambling around chasing half-bloods have _anything_ to do with the theft of an important Olympian artefact?"

Phaethon didn't say anything, but he frowned, looking more irritated, which was exactly what Nico wanted. He was trying to lead Phaethon into revealing the identity of the "patron". Now, he took a shot.

"And who's your patron?" he said briskly.

Phaethon gave him a condescending look. "My patron, little godling," he said, "is a mighty being. She is the one forgotten, but the one most important. She is—"

"Phaethon," Dolos whispered suddenly, as he reappeared. The minor god spoke quietly, but his words were weighted with power, and Phaethon stopped talking immediately. He gave Nico a knowing glare as Dolos pulled him over to the back of the chariot.

The chariot was far bigger than Nico had anticipated. Perhaps it was magical, or perhaps the designer had been on an ambrosia high when he'd made it. Regardless, the part of the chariot that Nico mentally referred to as "the basket" was about three times longer than normal. Installed in the side was a wooden ledge that served as a bench, and upon that Alice sat. Opposite to that ledge were several racks, upon each of which rested various weapons and tools of destruction.

Dolos shoved Nico down onto the bench, before marching back around to escort Jake. Nico took the moment to have a frantic whispered conversation with Alice.

"Can you loosen your chains?" he muttered.

"No," she said in reply, testing the chains with a tug. "They're completely solid."

"And did they take your weapons?" he said.

"Yes. They took my bag of grenades, and my sword," she said, nodding towards a rack, upon which her weapons rested.

Nico spat out a few curses, most of them directed at Phaethon. He glared around the chariot, and his eye fell upon a quiver of arrows strapped to the wood near the front of the basket.

"A-ha," he whispered. "If we can get those arrows, we can use them to escape. Whatever they are, they're powerful. Remember when we were first being chased by these goons?"

"Yeah," said Alice, yanking at her chains again.

"Those arrows nearly took us out. If we get to them, we'll be able to fight our way out." Nico said, feeling a little more hopeful.

Alice rolled her eyes. "Oh, that's a fantastic plan, really brilliant," she said irritably. "Just one tiny problem, Nico. _We can't get to the arrows_."

"Well. Yeah," he said, kicking the back of the wood absentmindedly. "I, uh. I'm working on that part."

Alice opened her mouth to deliver another sarcastic remark, but stayed quiet, for just then Jake was shoved unceremoniously into the basket. He slumped down on the bench, next to Nico. He struggled as Dolos locked him to the seat, but didn't break free.

The chariot creaked slightly as Phaethon stepped on. He tossed Jake's and Nico's swords on top of Alice's weapons, before going to the front of the chariot. Dolos moved to stand beside him, one hand resting on his sword, both eyes resting on the half-bloods.

"Care to tell us where you're taking us?" Nico called out to Phaethon.

The son of Apollo merely laughed. Nico was beginning to really hate the guy, but he had to give him one thing: he had his evil overlord act perfected. His ADHD kicked in for a moment as he thought of Phaethon sitting in a classroom being taught the techniques of villainy by a faceless monster. He found this rather amusing, but his levity was quickly dispelled, as Phaethon shook the reins and roared at the horses. The equine spectres started off, trotting down the road.

Nico struggled even harder to break his chains. Dolos said nothing, just staring down at them with a passive expression. The spirit looked entirely detached, but Nico looked into his eyes for a moment, and saw the glee and exultation that Dolos really felt. He was enjoying the half-bloods' misery, and this annoyed Nico even more.

The horses gradually picked up their pace, as Phaethon spurred them on. Nico grew increasingly desperate as they drew further and further away from the SUNCAR II. He knew that whatever chance he and his friends had of escaping rested with that car.

"You see, my friends," Phaethon said suddenly. "You are alone. Where are the gods now? Waiting in Olympus, no doubt. Waiting for you to return the Flame. But here, now, when you are supposedly in danger, they are nowhere to be seen."

He turned around to give Nico a serious stare. "You are alone when you stand with the gods. If you stand with me, however, you stand with friends."

Nico scowled at him. "I stand with friends. I'm standing with them right now," he replied angrily.

Phaethon turned away, shaking his head condescendingly. Nico's heart sank as the horses went faster again. He couldn't find a way out for him or his friends. He'd failed.

That was when the gunshot rang out.

A bronze bullet shot by Nico's ear. He immediately dived down, getting as close to the floor as he could. On either side of him, Alice and Jake did the same.

The horses reared, making the chariot sway and rattle. Nico looked up at them, trying to establish some sort of a link with the animals, since they were technically creatures of the Underworld. He straightened up a little, focussing hard.

"Nico, look out!" Alice screamed, dragging him back down. Another bullet whizzed past, mere inches away from where Nico had been a second before. It embedded itself in the wall of the chariot, causing many cracks to snake out from the point of impact.

"Whoever's shooting hasn't got much of an aim," Jake muttered, as another bullet - a celestial bronze bullet, Nico realised - flew over their heads.

Phaethon had retrieved a large shield from where it hung at the front of the chariot, and was using it to protect himself. Dolos, on the other hand, stood tall with his sword drawn. He was slicing at bullets as they shot by, trying to cut them in half.

Yet another bullet went into the wall behind Nico, and, as he stared at the resulting cracks, a crazy idea struck him.

"But what if the gunman _is_ aiming right?" he muttered.

"What?" said Jake.

Nico's eyes brightened as an escape from their captivity formed before his very eyes. "He's shooting at the chariot wall on purpose!" he hissed, glancing nervously at Dolos. "Whoever is firing that gun is trying to weaken this wall so we can break free!"

He punctuated this explanation by punching the wall as hard as he could. It hurt his knuckles badly, but it aided the extensive cracks in their spread. Alice, now understanding what he was getting at, kicked hard at the wall, and Jake did the same. Another bullet found a new home in the wood, and provided the right amount of shock and damage to buckle the wood. Nico gave his chains an almighty tug, and they broke free.

He looked up just in time to see Phaethon bringing a sword towards his shoulder. He rolled out of the way, and the blade merely snagged his T-shirt.

A timely cry from Dolos gave Phaethon pause. He turned to look at the spirit, who'd been hit in his left arm by one of the bullets. Phaethon's moment of distraction gave Nico time to dash over to his sword. He snatched it up, and turned in time to block another strike from Phaethon.

Alice broke out from her chains, and went straight to the reins of the horses. She pulled on them, trying to coax them into stopping. Meanwhile, Jake hammered away at his section of the wall, which was a little less damaged.

Nico danced around Phaethon, fighting him. The son of Apollo had strength and brutality on his side, but the son of Hades was swift and nimble. He used his chains, which were still attached to his wrists, to lash at Phaethon's face. One missed, but the other stuck home, giving Phaethon a nasty cut in his cheek.

Another gunshot sounded off, and the horses reared again. Alice grappled with them, trying to pull them back, but they began to canter. They picked up speed at a worrying rate.

"I can't control them, Nico!" she called out, stumbling as the chariot lurched again.

Nico stabbed at Phaethon, who barely dodged. "We'll have to jump off!" he shouted to Alice. She nodded, and hurried over to the weapons rack. Jake broke out of his own chains, and joined her in reclaiming his weapons.

Dolos, who had been hit again the last time the gun had fired, lurched towards the two of them. Alice turned to him, and tossed a sun grenade right in his face. Nico closed his eyes quickly, and heard her cry to Jake to do the same.

The worst of the flash didn't affect Nico, but even with his eyes tight shut he was dazed a little. He waited a second, and opened his eyes. Dolos had staggered against the wall of the chariot, clutching his head. Alice and Phaethon were unaffected, but Jake looked slightly stunned. Alice lunged at Dolos, and, in a quick motion, slashed him across the chest. This last injury must have been too much for the spirit, for he began to shimmer, and a moment later, he had disappeared.

Phaethon remained standing, however. He growled a curse, and sliced at Alice, who was nearest him. She ducked past him, following Jake to the edge of the chariot. That left Nico, who was blocked in his path by Phaethon. He tried to slip by, but Phaethon was too fast. The formerly dead man swiped the sword from Nico's hand, who stumbled. Phaethon took advantage of this discomposure, and grabbed Nico by the throat in an instant.

He began to squeeze, and Nico's vision blurred, as he fought for breath. He tore at Phaethon's arm, but the son of Apollo's grip was as tight as that of a python. His limbs grew weak as he was starved of oxygen; his consciousness, already shaken by the sun grenade, started slipping away. He felt a mixture of despair and anger as his body failed and his mind followed suit and all he could think was that he'd failed, he'd failed himself and his friends and his father and—

And suddenly Jake was there, and Alice, and they knocked Phaethon to the ground together with his own shield and they grabbed Nico's sword and they grabbed Nico. They dragged him towards the edge of the chariot and he tried to stand and he couldn't and they were almost there but he was slipping away and the chariot passed over a bump and they nearly went sprawling but they got to the edge and they jumped and they were free.

And everything went black.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note: With this chapter, I have passed 40k for this story. It's turning out to be a good deal bigger than I anticipated!**

**A note of credit, and thanks: in the flashback scene, the passage beginning with '"Make your fire"' and ending with '"who wasn't?"' is a slightly edited form of a piece of dialogue that Musafreen wrote originally, but she let me adopt it, so thanks and credit to her for that.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. Tis all for fun**.

Rise of the Forgotten.

Chapter 13: Flicker and Sputter, Thy Flame Does.

Hestia sat, shivering, next to the almost entirely bare fireplace. The coals within it were still glowing, but only just. The very air in the throne room of the gods felt colder and darker. Nico turned around to look at the entranceway of the room, in time to see Dionysus enter.

He walked in slowly, gazing pensively at Hestia. Nico cleared his throat loudly, but neither god looked his way, which confirmed what he'd thought - this was but a dream. Though he felt anxious to wake up and help his friends, Nico found he was unable to rouse himself, and so he stood back to watch the gods.

"Hestia," Mr. D said softly, almost compassionately.

"Dionysus," she replied, her voice less than a whisper. "I'm sorry you had to come to such a meagre hearth."

"It's not your fault," he said, crouching down. "Is it getting harder to hold on?"

She nodded. "My sisters are doing what they can, but without the Flame, I struggle greatly to maintain the fire."

Dionysus sighed at this. Nico remembered how Hestia had been the one to surrender her throne, thousands of years ago, when Dionysus had been made a god. Even now, after eons, it seemed that the god of wine had not forgotten Hestia's sacrifice.

"The heroes are progressing on their quest," he said, a note of contempt creeping into his voice. "There are reports from the air spirits that a ghost from the Underworld is working with the thief."

"What ghost?" Hestia asked, pulling her robe in a little tighter.

"The son of Apollo, Phaethon," he replied. "Furthermore, surveillance has shown that our suspicions regarding the identity of the entity behind the theft are correct."

Hestia drew in her breath sharply. Her expression darkened, and she said gravely, "I knew that something like this would one day occur. For the one who is rising now, the natural place to strike is at the hearth. We can only hope that this does not herald the beginning of something far greater, and far more dangerous."

To Nico's heartfelt shock, Dionysus actually paled at Hestia's words. A dark look came upon his face, making him seem as if he'd just been told that he had to drink nothing but water for an entire century.

"Surely you don't think that the prontos profiteia has begun?" he said carefully.

Hestia didn't reply for several minutes, merely staring into the hearth with a solemn air. Dionysus had moved as if to stand up, when she said, "I don't know about that. All I can be sure of is that the foundation of the home, the hearth, and the family now faces a threat graver than the rise of Kronos or the awakening of Gaia. I pray that the heroes succeed on their quest, for if they do not, I will surely fade."

Her tone was so somber, Dionysus didn't even make a derisive remark at the mention of the half-bloods. He simply nodded, and stood up. The god turned to walk out of the throne room, and Nico's dream faded.

He woke slowly, hearing a quiet noise. He cracked his eyes open carefully, and found himself lying across the backseats of the SUNCAR II. Glancing towards the front of the car, he saw Jake and Alice in the passenger and driver seats respectively. They were driving along a road, and all was quiet and calm. Were it not for his throbbing neck and head, Nico would have thought the whole incident with Phaethon had merely been some extremely irritating nightmare.

He didn't say anything right away, instead lying still, enjoying the quiet. His friends were quiet also, and the atmosphere pervading the car was one of intense relief, a feeling Nico felt all the more fervently after his vision of Hestia. To see a god so helpless, particularly one of the few gods who were kind to him, was greatly unnerving, and a considerable encouragement to find the Flame as soon as possible.

After a few more minutes of meditative silence, he felt it was wise to assure his friends that he was not dead or dying. He rustled a little, and coughed quietly, trying not to startle Alice. As fond as Nico was of adventure and excitement, he preferred not to be in a car crash of any degree of danger.

His movement prompted Jake to glance back at him. "Nico," he said. "You're awake."

He straightened up, yawning, and nodded. "Don't sound so disappointed," he said drily. Alice looked back at him, too, a sense of relief evident on her face.

"What happened, after I passed out?" Nico asked. "Did Phaethon try to kidnap us again?"

"No," Jake replied. "The chariot took off down the road, with him in it. The horses went pretty wild after all that commotion. I'd say he didn't get control of them again for quite a while."

"We got back to the car as quick as we could," Alice said. "Luckily we hadn't been taken too far from it. We've been driving for around an hour now."

Nico nodded. "That was a really close one. I thought we were screwed."

"Me too," Alice said. She shook her head in disbelief. "Who was that firing the gun? Could it be that someone else is on our side?"

"Don't get your hopes up," Nico quipped. "But now that I think back, the gunshots sounded familiar."

Jake frowned back at him. "How could a gunshot sound familiar?" he said, quizzical.

"I don't know…" Nico said, gazing out the window pensively. It was in the middle of the afternoon, and the sky had clouded over a little. Alice had kept to back roads, no doubt to avoid getting into too much traffic, so the road was reasonably quiet. Every time they sped past a house that looked like a family home, Nico felt a prickly sense of unease and worry. He wondered what would happen to all those homes, all those families, if he failed in his quest. No-one, not even Chiron, had truly explained the consequences of the loss, perhaps the destruction, of the Flame. As he sat there in the car gifted to them by the gods themselves, Nico couldn't help but think that the loss of the Flame, the loss of Hestia, would herald a new dark age; a new era, where brother killed brother, and parents fought children.

As he thought further, however, he realised that, in fact, such an age was already upon the world, and had been for centuries. Across the planet, from east to west, north to south, parents abused children, children disrespected parents, and all fought all. Nico had always been struck by how, whenever he put on the news or heard something about the mortal world, it was very often inextricably connected with death, disaster, or disunity. As a son of Hades, he was far from desensitised to death; if anything, he was more deeply attuned to it than most.

And when he looked out at the world, most of the time all he could see was the death at the heart of every person overcoming the life. There were exceptions, undoubtedly, but the general rule was depressingly uniform and widespread.

This made him feel distinctly dejected. Sitting there considering those things, Nico felt as if he was fighting against a tidal wave of inhumanity, a wave which had already washed over and consumed most of civilisation. He thought of the gods, and how they were always bickering, and had been for many ages, and he wondered if that was a reflection of the inhumanity of the world, or one of the causes of it. Was it in the nature of humans to be perpetually inhuman to each other, or was there another way?

His thoughts drifted back to Phaethon, a deeply angry man. Not for the first time, Nico wondered if he was right. Were the gods truly the best thing for the civilisation, or were they a curse, a parasite upon the West? Nico had never been completely content with the Olympians - losing one's sister to an Olympian's special hunting club would do that to you. From the first night at Westhover, to the weeks of his imprisonment by Gaia, to the day he was given the quest to recover the Flame, he'd always doubted the gods. He felt, often, that the humans, as unstable as they were, would be better off on their own.

Yet here he was, on a quest, serving the gods. The truth was, however, that if the sacred item of any other god but Hestia had been stolen, Nico would have quite flatly refused to go. He wasn't going to help some far-distant god of whom he had little knowledge other than what he read in the mythology books. If Hades' item had been stolen, he would have had no choice but to go, but for any other god, Nico would have stayed at home.

Hestia was a different matter altogether, though. She was the only god who had ever been truly kind to him. She didn't look at him as the son of Hades, King of Ghosts, Prince of Death. She looked at him as a human being, albeit one with some added powers.

He thought back to a solstice at Olympus, several years ago. It had been at the height of the Second Giant War, and the main council had withdrawn. Most half-bloods went walking around Olympus, but Nico had stayed in the throne room, near the hearth.

* * *

><p><em>He sat by the fire, glaring into it dully. Percy had freed him from Gaia's grasp a few weeks before, and he had not yet recovered. That, coupled with the onset of even more war, meant that he was in a dark mood indeed.<em>

_He shivered, despite the fire. He felt cold right to his stomach, but it was a cold of a more than physical nature. It was as if his very soul had been stuffed into a freezer, and left there, forgotten._

_"It's hard, to keep the fire lit," a voice over his shoulder said softly._

_He turned, to find Hestia standing next to him, gazing into the fire herself._

_"Shouldn't you be with the rest of the gods?" Nico asked, his own voice thin and croaky._

_She shook her head. "I am not a war goddess. My place is by the hearth, keeping it lit."_

_Hestia crouched down next to him, picking up the poker and stirring the coals gently. As Nico watched the fire blaze a little brighter, he felt a slight warming in his chest._

_"Everyone has to keep their own fire lit, though," Hestia murmured. "We all have our own demons, even gods. We must struggle against the darkness that lurks within us. Make the fire of life burn on in our soul."_

_Nico didn't reply, simply glowering into the coals with dejection. A few minutes passed, and Hestia stayed silent. The only sound was that of the low crackle of the flames._

_"I don't know if I can," Nico said finally. "I've seen so much dark stuff. I just… I feel like the dark is all there is."_

_To Nico's surprise, Hestia smiled faintly. "It's always darkest before the dawn," she said._

_Nico snorted. "That's just a saying. It doesn't _mean_ anything."_

_"And how do you think that saying came about? Do you think the mortals plucked it from thin air?" she replied swiftly._

_Nico said nothing._

_"Every time the gods go to war, I have faced this conflict," she said. "I sit here, trying to keep this fire going, and wonder if there is any point, if I would be better to step away into the shadows, and let the coals burn out."_

_Nico watched her carefully, feeling a little encouraged. She sighed lightly._

_"But I always come back to the same idea," she continued. "That idea is, simply, that as long as the fire is lit, there is always something to come back to. Think of this: when mortals make camp in the woods, what's the first thing they always do?"_

_"Light a fire," Nico muttered._

_"Exactly," Hestia said. "The fire is a symbol, a beacon. It holds back the dark. As long as it is there, we will have a place of safety, no matter how much destruction we have seen."_

_Nico nodded, taking in her words. They rang true, deeper than he had expected._

_Hestia took his hand gently. "Make your fire, young one," she said. "Nobody should be cold during the solstice."_

_"Not even sons of Hades?" Nico replied, almost automatically._

_"Especially not sons of Hades," she smiled, and released his hand. "Give them a hint of darkness and they wallow in it for the rest of eternity. Too much of their father in them, I think. Hades was always such a drama queen. But then again, who wasn't?"_

* * *

><p>Nico smiled slightly as he thought back to that evening. He'd perked up considerably after talking to Hestia, and he had been positively sociable for a few hours afterwards, much to the shock of his friends.<p>

He'd always been a little puzzled by Hestia's continuing kindness to him. After all, he wasn't exactly a cheery or humorous person, generally. He could never quite fathom it, but he had a feeling it was down to certain similarities he and Hestia had. Neither of them were the biggest social animals in all of the West, and nor were they the frequent recipient of praise and approbation.

Or maybe it was down to the fact Hestia was that rare thing: a truly kind goddess. If Nico was honest, she was the only Olympian whom he thought of as a deity in truth rather than in word. That was why he was on this godsbedamned quest. He certainly wasn't there because of some gallant sense of duty, some heroic need to save the day. As far as he was concerned, the majority of the planet could go jump into a black hole.

The car jolted as it passed over a speed bump, and Nico was shaken from his long-winded philosophising. As he glanced at his watch, it occurred to him that it would probably be a good idea to tell his friends about his vision.

He cleared his throat to get their attention (he had this thing about just talking into silence), and said, "So, uh. I had this vision thing."

"Oh?" replied Jake drily. "Vision thing?"

"All right," Nico shot back. "We can't all talk like books."

Alice laughed at that. Jake smiled and scowled in a funny sort of mixture.

"So, I saw Olympus in my dream, when I was passed out," Nico said. "Hestia and Mr. D were at the throne room. I saw them talking."

Alice looked all the way around at him, with an expression of deep surprise and worry. "That's very unusual," she said darkly. "Half-bloods don't often get to see that far into Olympus in their dreams. The defences the gods have in place usually keep out all demigod dreams. To see into Olympus in a dream, either the defences must be down, or someone on Olympus must serve as a conduit for the dreamer's soul."

Nico nodded, taking that in. He eyed the road with a pointed look, for Alice had been facing the other way for a worryingly long time. She followed his gaze, and started, as she realised she had but a finger on the wheel. As Nico pondered her words, Alice took hold of the wheel again, just in time to steer safely around a sharp corner.

Nico took a sudden intake of breath as he realised how he'd able to see into the throne room. "It's because the Flame is gone, and Hestia is struggling," he said. "The defences of Olympus are built around the hearth. That's why they didn't crumble completely when Kronos attacked, because Hestia was strong. But now they are starting to break down…"

He shook his head, feeling a little overwhelmed by the upheaval of it all.

"How do you know so much about this, anyway?" Jake asked curiously.

Alice shrugged. "I've done a good amount of research into the magic of the soul and the mind. It ties into the whole prophecy thing in a small way, and it interests me, too," she said.

He gave her a look that even Nico could tell contained more than just friendliness. "Huh," he said. "You never cease to surprise me, Alice."

She caught his gaze, and laughed, possibly blushing slightly. She opened her mouth to respond, but Nico broke in.

"So, Jake, when we reach Alcatraz," he said briskly. "You and I will go on ahead. Alice should stay behind, just in case."

"What?" snapped Alice, her good humour fading quickly at this statement. Jake glanced hack at Nico, frowning.

"We need someone to stay behind, in case something happens," Nico explained. "So you can alert Chiron if we fail."

His words were reasonable, but his tone was brusque and, indeed, more like the one he'd taken towards Alice prior to Phaethon's incursion. She huffed, giving him an angry glare via the rearview mirror.

"I suppose you think I'm not strong enough or something?" she said, almost growling.

Nico shrugged dismissively. Jake said carefully, "Perhaps he's right, Alice. I mean, it'll be very close-quarters there, more than likely…"

He trailed off as Alice gave him a hurt look.

"Fine then!" she cried, blinking back tears. "I don't know what the two of you think you're playing at, but fine!"

They drove on in silence.

* * *

><p><strong>Now, I know that people are reading this story, because a number of people have either this on story alert or me on author alert. I also know that I'm getting a reasonable number of hits. So please, leave a review, even if it's just to say if you like it or not.<strong>


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Note: Wow, three chapters in one month! Not bad, by my standards. XD**

**I'm going to try to write more often during the summer. Hopefully I'll finish this fic by the middle of July.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. Tis all for fun.**

Rise of the Forgotten.

Chapter 14: Assault (Again)

The awkward atmosphere in the car didn't get any better for the rest of the day. Nico held to his original insistence that Alice should stay behind when they reached Alcatraz, and Jake continued to support him. The upshot of this was that by the time the sun had nearly set, Alice's mood was dark indeed.

They'd gone to a fast-food drive-thru, as they were running low on money. Nico was beginning to feel distinctly greasy from all the processed chips and burgers he'd been having over the last few days.

Now, Alice pulled over, for they had to decide whether to stay in a motel or drive on for the night.

"I think we should keep going," Nico said quietly. "If we drive on, it'll mean that we'll reach Alcatraz tomorrow. Judging by the way Hestia looked in my dream, I don't think we have any time to spare."

Jake nodded. "I agree. We can always sleep, but we only have one chance to get this right."

"Alice? What do you think?" Nico asked, for she had been silent heretofore.

She sighed irritably, and muttered, "Oh, I don't care. You two can decide what we do. What do I know?"

Nico ignored the first and third remarks, instead focussing on her second comment. "Alright then," he said. "We'll drive on. I'll take the wheel, Alice. You should get some rest: you look wrecked."

He opened the car door, and paused until Alice had gotten out. Then he hopped out of the car and made his way over to the driver's side. Alice got into the back, though she spared a moment to give Nico an angry glower. He made no reply, merely getting into the driver's seat and buckling up. Night had fallen by now, so Nico felt reasonably confident that he could drive for a number of hours without meeting any more unexpected trees or surprising corners. Hence, he started up the car, and rolled down the road.

He said nothing to Jake, and vice versa, for the night. He drove in silence, his brow furrowed as he contemplated the coming struggles. After a while, Jake made himself comfortable, and fell asleep.

But Nico drove on through the darkness, always watching, always seeing.

Much later on, around 3 AM, Nico stopped the car, and changed over with Jake, who took over driving. Nico settled down himself, and fell asleep, preparing for the day ahead.

He dreamed little, seeing no shadowy caves or Olympian thrones rooms, hearing neither whispered, dark voices nor resounding, godly declarations. He may have dreamt of a certain redheaded Oracle, though that was something which he preferred to keep to himself.

* * *

><p>The morning sunlight helped to awaken him, as did the soft jolt which ran through the car when Jake brought it to a halt opposite a gas station.<p>

He rose from his sleep gradually, carefully reassembling his awareness. Through his head he ran the usual questions of where he was, what was he doing next, and was he under any immediate attack from peckish monsters. As the memory of the previous day and the knowledge that they were nearly at Alcatraz came back to him, Nico felt a complex surge of emotions. He felt relieved at having made it this far, but he felt great unease at the prospect of the coming battle. This was crunch time for him and his quest: he'd screwed up more than once along the way, but everything had just about worked out. Now, though, he couldn't afford to put so much a toe wrong, never mind a foot.

He was disturbed in his thoughts by the sound of Jake whispering, "Nico? Psst. Wake up."

Nico opened his eyes, to find Jake peering at him, with a look of solemnity and resolve on his face.

"Hey," Nico mumbled, rubbing his bleary eyes.

Jake nodded, and glanced back at Alice with an air of unease. All was quiet at the back of the car, and Nico assumed Alice was still asleep.

"Listen, uh," Jake said, looking at Nico again. The son of Erebus had an air of someone about to perform a deeply unpleasant but wholly unavoidable task.

"Would you mind, um, going into the shop and getting us coffee or something?" he murmured, waving his hand towards the station. "I want to, ah. To have a talk with Alice."

Nico sighed, and straightened up. Several thoughts ran through his mind, none of which made him feel too happy, but he nodded.

"Alright," he said, reaching for the door handle. "Back in a…"

He paused, waiting for Jake to fill in the gap.

"A few minutes should be enough," he answered.

Nico nodded again, and got out of the car, making his way towards the gas station without a backward glance.

The forecourt was empty, for it was only around half past eight. Apart from the presence of a teenager with an air of such vagueness that the only definite thing about him was his complete disinterestedness in all existence, the shop was empty, too. As Nico strolled further into the shop, the only sounds to be heard were the humming of the fridges, the whispering of the radio, and the tapping of the teenager's fingers upon the countertop as he listened to something loosely related to music on his iPod.

Nico went about getting coffee from the machine at a leisurely pace, praying that he wouldn't get back to the car to find Alice and Jake in the middle of… ahem, something. He picked up a few pastries and a banana of dubious fruithood, before making his way to the checkout.

The interminably vague teenager took a suitable vague approach to serving Nico, by merely pulling out one earphone, and by not even bothering to ignore Nico specifically, never mind register his existence. He took the half-blood's money with a cursory glance, and passed over the change with one hand, whilst returning his earphone to its place with the other.

Nico lingered in the shop a couple of minutes more, before opening the shop door. He stepped out slowly, a look of slight unease passing over his face as he glanced towards the car.

He paused.

Alice and Jake were standing by the car, talking. That wasn't what was giving Nico pause, though. He had frozen because he could hear a sound, a sound with which he had become all too familiar over the past few days.

The sound of hooves.

They were coming fast and strong - it sounded like Phaethon had his horses at full gallop. It occurred to Nico that the horses must have had magically enhanced hooves, for no mere mortal horse could make such a cacophony. He didn't have the time to dwell on that thought, however, for he heard a cry of annoyance coming from Alice. He glanced over, to find her pushing Jake away. By the looks of it, the son of Erebus had tried to kiss her, and Alice had summarily rejected him.

Nico stepped towards them, but stopped again as he felt a surge of alien energy approaching. It was the same energy he'd felt around Phaethon the last times they'd met, the energy that was keeping the son of Apollo tethered to the land of the living. It was the energy of a deity of some kind, and Nico was sure it wasn't that of an Olympian deity.

Alice and Jake were still arguing, and as Nico stared at them he felt a chill down his spine that he associated with coming mortal danger. With that on his mind, he shouted to his friends, "Get away from the car. Now!"

The two of them paused in their squabbling, and glanced over at him. Alice looked puzzled, while Jake had a dark look indeed upon his face.

Nico waved at them frantically, not daring to come nearer. "Come on," he roared. "Get the hell away from the car!"

The message finally got through, and they both unfroze and ran towards Nico. Just in the nick of time, too.

For a second later Phaethon, in his chariot, came galloping into view, and he stampeded into the SUNCAR II. He didn't so much as blink as his horses leapt up onto the car, dragging the chariot with it. They stomped across the car, smashing it with great thoroughness, before trotting over the hood and onto the ground. The wheels of Phaethon's chariot did no small amount of damage, and the man himself used one of his spears to add to the destruction.

Finally, he dropped the spear and snatched his bow from a side shelf. In the blink of an eye, he had shot three arrows clear through the hood of the car, no doubt damaging the engine greatly.

In less than a minute, Phaethon had completely trashed the demigods' transportation. The windows were all shattered, the roof was bent and battered, and the front end was a mangled mess.

It made industrial car crushers look positively inefficient.

Phaethon gave the car an approving, satisfied glance, rather like the one he'd given the freshly polished countertop back at the bar in the ghost town. Then, he turned towards Nico, and his friends, who were a few steps away from one another. With timing achieved only by those with great natural skill at villainy, he smiled menacingly.

To Nico's eternal gratitude, he didn't waste time with an evil monologue. If the son of Hades had to listen to one more speech about the end of the age of the gods and the beginning of a new era, he'd stab someone's eye out.

Instead, Phaethon took the straightforward approach, and charged the half-bloods head-on.

More particularly, he charged at Nico.

That gave Nico less than a second to decide what to do. He had his sword, but Alice's and Jake's weapons were somewhere in the wreckage of the car. He figured if he could get close enough to Phaethon to stab him, he'd be able to banish his spirit back to the Underworld.

It wasn't a thorough plan, but it was all he had.

He ran forward and to the right, trying to draw Phaethon away from his friends and away from the shop. If the horses went through the glass, it would attract a great deal more attention than Nico wanted.

He reached the road and turned, to find that Phaethon had made a pinpoint turn, and was charging Nico again. He took a deep breath, and drew his sword, the blade vibrating lightly as he took it from its sheath. He watched the approaching chariot carefully, getting ready to jump. As the son of Apollo drew nearer, Nico could see the fury in his eyes. To his surprise, he could also see pain and regret glaring dully out. For a moment, Nico wondered if Phaethon was really his enemy, or if he was just being used as a pawn by some greater, more cunning foe.

He didn't have time to explore that thought further, though, for the chariot was nearly upon him. He waited until the last second, until the horses were an inch away from trampling him, before making his move. Jumping as high as he could, he managed to grab onto the side of the basket, and he started to heave himself in. Phaethon, anticipating this move, was already bringing the horses to a stop, no doubt so that he could avoid the fate he met during his last battle with Nico.

The son of Hades dragged himself all the way into the chariot. He had a second to pause, and his ADHD took that moment to inform him that the basket was miraculously restored after the damage the lone gunman had wreaked. Then Phaethon drew his sword, and he was upon Nico, slashing and stabbing.

Nico fought back hard, and he was fighting with all he had, fighting for his life, fighting for his friends, fighting for the Flame. He ducked as Phaethon tried to make his head a separate entity, before lunging to return the favour. His opponent blocked the strike, and held Nico's blade for a moment, sneering. Nico pushed his weapon free, and took a step away, a step towards the edge of the chariot.

Phaethon followed, now trying to introduce Nico to a view of his own innards, and the son of Hades began to gradually draw him towards the end of the basket. He played possum, letting Phaethon batter at him, pretending to be weakened. A gleeful and more than slightly maniacal glint became obvious in the man's eyes as he seemed to gain the upper hand on Nico.

Finally, they reached the very edge. Nico slumped and let his sword go limp slightly, doing all he could to fool Phaethon. At this apparent sign of defeat, the son of Apollo took a step forward and, with one foot off the ground, made another attempt to divorce Nico's head from his neck.

That was when the son of Hades struck.

He swerved around Phaethon's blade, and grabbed the man's shoulder. Taking advantage of his opponent's imbalanced position, he pulled Phaethon sharply to one side, making him stumble. Then, Nico pushed Phaethon out of the chariot and onto the road.

He immediately tried to stand up, but Nico hopped out of the basket and stomped on his wrist. He dropped his sword, growling in pain. Nico put his sword-point on Phaethon's throat, and he froze.

They stayed like that for a moment, both catching their breath, before Phaethon said, "You don't have to do this. I can help you."

"Help me how? Help me help you to overthrow Olympus?" Nico retorted.

"No, no. I have friends, powerful friends. They could make you strong."

He paused, wetting his lips and looking Nico in the eye. "They could bring your sister back."

Nico resisted the urge to shove his sword up Phaethon's rear end and out through his mouth. He cleared his throat, and said, "That's impossible and you know it. My sister chose rebirth."

"But what if it isn't impossible? What if I can help you find her?" Phaethon whispered.

Nico swallowed mechanically, trying to maintain his grip on the sword as his hand grew sweaty. He heard footsteps behind him, approaching carefully, but he didn't look around. "I know how this works," he said. "You offer me something I can't refuse, and I help you win. I'm not stupid."

"But Nico," Phaethon murmured. "You don't even have to help me win. You just have to let me go."

That gave Nico pause. What if Phaethon was right? What if he did let him go?

"Nico?" said a voice in his ear.

He jumped, and turned to see Jake standing next to him.

That was his mistake.

Phaethon batted the sword to one side immediately after Nico had looked away. He sprang up from the ground, and snatched up his own sword. By the time Nico realised what was happening, Phaethon was already leaping into the chariot.

"Stop him!" Nico cried, a little redundantly. Alice was running towards them, and was only a few feet away when Phaethon turned, a long net in his hand. It looked similar to the ones used by gladiators in Rome, but it had apparently received some considerable technological upgrades. Phaethon called out a quick string of Greek, and threw the net in the air.

Instead of dropping, it hovered for a second, before shooting towards Alice. She dodged it, but it turned mid-air and tried to catch her again. As Nico stared at it, he realised that it was made up of incredibly fine threads of celestial bronze, and on the corners were tiny beetle-like devices, which were projecting the net through the air.

One corner of it latched onto Alice's sleeve. Jake let out a cry of, "No!" and yanked the device away.

After that, everything happened very quickly.

Seconds after Jake touched the net, it began to target him instead. It expanded rapidly, the four corner devices dragging the now rather large net into the air around Jake. Before he could even blink, he was surrounded by bronze wire. Nico desperately tried to find a spot to slash it open, but it was happening too fast and suddenly Jake was completely entrapped in the wire and if he slashed at it he'd injure Jake and…

Phaethon snapped his fingers and called out another few words in Greek. A strand of bronze shot out from one, then two, then all of the beetle-like devices. Phaethon caught them all, briskly, and secured them to a spear holder on one side of the chariot. Then, the corner beetles began to suck the strands back in, but because the strands were secured, the result was that Jake got hurriedly dragged into the chariot.

All this happened very quickly, and as hard as Nico tried to find an opening in the net, his efforts came to no avail. Phaethon turned and shook the reins of the horses, and they took off at a brisk trot, then a canter, then a gallop, and then they were gone.

Nico turned to Alice, to see the tears clouding her eyes.

"Alice—" he began, but she cut him off with an angry retort.

"I don't want to hear it!" she snapped. "If you and Jake had just listened to me, we could have avoided this…" she began to break down more. Nico stared at her awkwardly, unsure what to do.

Then he said, "Look, Alice. That's not how it is."

She didn't reply, now sobbing more. Nico rubbed his brow, and glanced over at the shop. The languid teenager was staring out at them with an expression filled with frozen fear. They didn't have long before the police were called. Nico hurried over to the battered car, and managed to dig out Alice's weapons.

He turned back to Alice and said, "Please. Come on. I can explain it all. Let's just find a quiet spot so we can talk."

She looked him in the eyes, and shrugged, though not without anger.

He brought her to a small park a little down the road. They found a bench in a shaded spot, as far away from the road as they could get, and sat down.

"Now," Alice sniffed. "Explain whatever it is you have to explain."

Nico took a breath, and, over the course of the following fifteen minutes, explained it all.


	15. Chapter 15

**Author's Note: So, yeah. We draw closer to the climax.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. Tis all for fun.**

Rise of the Forgotten.

Chapter 15: An Unexpected Ally

Alice sat back on the bench and sighed.

"How long have you known all this?" she asked Nico.

"I was suspicious since the train," he said. "I only got surer and surer since then."

She shook her head. "It makes sense in one way, but in another it doesn't," she muttered. "More than anything, it hurts. It hurts to be just…"

"I did what I could to make sure you weren't used too much," Nico said. "I wish I could have saved you the pain as well, but it couldn't have been done."

They fell silent, both staring across the park thoughtfully. Having spoken at length, they now knew where they stood with one another, but while that was the end of one chapter, it was certainly not the end of the story.

"We'll have to move soon," Nico said quietly. "It has to end tonight. We make it to Alcatraz and regain the Flame, or we fail."

Alice nodded, and straightened slightly. "And how do you propose we get there?" she said, a healthy amount of sarcasm creeping into her voice.

"Well. Um." Nico muttered, scowling. That was a problem. They had little to no money, the car was wrecked, there were no bus stops nearby, and Nico was pretty damn sure that they'd run out of luck on the Olympian Gods' Lottery of Magical Assistance. He was beginning to feel distinctly like some sort of poor, unfortunate wizard detective: he was supposed to be on the case, but he felt like the case was on him; he knew where to go, but despite his feigned confidence he had no clue what to do once he got there; and he had a sackful of magic powers and tricks, but he couldn't use as many of them as he'd like, because The Gods Said So.

He felt pretty sure that someone out there was taking great pleasure and amusement at the farcical excuse for an existence that was his life. As he glared out at the passers-by, he started to feel like even they were laughing at him. That man with the balding hair and dapper suit looked far too amused for his own good, and the only reason that child over there could look so happy was that she was roaring with laughter in her mind at the ridiculousness of Nico's life. Even the old granny was clearly laughing at him, as she glanced across the park with a benevolent smile.

And oh, look, here came someone who wanted to get a closer look at the butt end of the cosmos's jokes. The well-built man came into the park, slowly making his way towards Nico, no doubt revelling in the sheer ridiculousness of Nico's existence. After all, why else would he be staring at them curiously, as though he'd seen them bef—

Nico's train of thought derailed as he realised the man approaching was _not_ in fact an amused member of the audience. He met Alice's sidelong glance as the two of them considered the man with puzzlement. To Nico, the man looked familiar somehow, but he couldn't quite place how.

The man was tall and broad-chested. His beard was black and tangled, and he had dark eyes - though, they were dark in both colour and mood. Slung across his back was a huge sports bag, and in his left hand was a large hardback notebook. Nico stared at it, trying to trigger his memory into regurgitating the identity of the man. Finally, as the man stopped, a few feet away, it all fell into place.

"I know you!" Nico blurted out. "You were at the motel."

The man nodded, and smiled a little.

"And…" Nico paused. "I saw you somewhere else, too."

"It wasn't in that blasted ghost town, was it?" the man said, his voice deep and rumbling.

Nico's eyes widened as he put the pieces together. He glanced at Alice, who had an expression of amazement and disbelief as she worked it out herself.

"It was," Nico said. "Who _are_ you?"

The man sighed. He took a step closer, and Nico moved to make room for him on the bench. Unslinging his bag and dropping it to the ground, he sat down.

"My name," he said, "is Jack Mills. I'm a son of Hephaestus."

He unzipped the bag, dropped the notebook into it, and then drew out a long, bronze gun. Another piece fell into place in Nico's mind as he looked at the weapon. He thought back over the quest, remembering the man with the broomstick he'd seen at the door of a shop in the ghost town. He remembered seeing Jack at the motel, and the bizarre events that had occurred during that night.

"You're the gunman, aren't you?" Alice said softly. "You've been helping us all along, and we had no idea."

Jack nodded. He plucked a hip flask from his tool belt, and took a long draught. As he screwed the top back on, he said, "I used to be just like you two. I was eager, wanting to help the gods and help my siblings."

He stared into the middle distance, his expression dark. "But my siblings weren't too helpful. You see, I was a little different from the usual children of Hephaestus. I had a small amount of power over fire, not enough to be a proper pyrokinetic, but enough to really annoy my brothers and sisters. On top of that, I was excellent at designing, better than some, even.

"But when it came to the forge, I wasn't talented. Embarrassingly so. I became the black sheep of the Hephaestus cabin."

Jack looked back at Alice and Nico. "I came out here when I could. I left it all behind, and became a sort of hermit, roaming from quiet place to quiet place. Chiron sends me letters or IMs, keeping me up-to-date, but apart from that, I'm as far removed from the world of the gods as I can hope to be.

"Then, a few days ago, you demigods rolled into town."

Nico tried his best to look innocent.

"You may recall, when you were running from Phaethon, seeing a man in a shop door, holding a broomstick?" Jack said.

Nico nodded slowly. "I do recall that."

"Well, that was me," the son of Hephaestus said. "I was stopping there for a while, running a little shop for a few months. The 'stick was the Mist-obscured gun."

He waved the gun slightly to punctuate that statement, before going on, "That was the first time I'd seen half-bloods since I left camp forty years ago. And, for whatever reason, I felt compelled to help."

Nico and Alice just stared at him, fascinated.

"I waited until you and Phaethon were well out of town, and I followed. I know a lot of the motel people now, and with a little persuasion I managed to take over the watch for the night there. Phaethon tried to break in, but I held him off.

"Then, finally, I was the guy who got you out of the chariot. I would have been here to help this morning, but my car broke down a few miles out."

His story told, Jack finally fell silent. Nico and Alice were quiet for several minutes as they considered all they'd been told. The sun, shining brightly, bathed the whole park in light. Where Nico and his friends sat was overhung by several large trees, and they formed a little oasis of gentle shadows. It was a reflection of how Nico felt: after the long journey across America, he had reached a temporary space of calm and stillness, a reprieve from the struggle of life.

He knew he couldn't hang about enjoying himself for much longer, though. He took a deep breath, and said, "Well, um. We appreciate everything you've done for us. And…"

He paused, deciding the best way to say it.

"Do you think perhaps you could help us get to Alcatraz?" Alice cut in, getting impatient with Nico's verbal fumbling.

Jack chuckled slightly. "Well, let's see. You've got no car, no money, no magic flying skills, and obviously you can't shadow travel or you would have done so already. I may be - no, I am - an uncooperative blockhead most of the time, but I really can't leave you on the side of the road, can I?"

Alice clapped her hands, making Nico start from the sudden sound. "Great!" she said. "And you know what I'm going to ask next."

Jack scowled. He stood up slowly, and shoved his gun back into the bag. "Yeah, I do know," he murmured. "But no. I'm not going into battle. I can shoot celestial bronze bullets from a good distance, but I am not a warrior. Once we reach Alcatraz, you're on your own."

Nico opened his mouth to argue, but Jack shook his hand vociferously. "No!" he exclaimed. "That's my final word. If you try to persuade me otherwise, I'll leave now. Some demigods are born to fight, born to battle. Not me."

He turned, and began to trudge towards the park gate. Alice leaned in to Nico and whispered in his ear.

"Should we keep trying?"

He gazed at Jack carefully, taking in the man's worn-down gait and hunched posture. The man was a picture of someone who'd given up on the world almost completely, and there was a nothing a couple of teenagers could do about it.

"No," Nico whispered back. "He won't listen, and it's not worth sacrificing the ride to Alcatraz. We'll have to face Phaethon alone."

"But—" Alice started to say.

"But nothing!" Nico snapped. "He doesn't want to help. We can't make him. That's it."

Alice sighed heavily, and put her head in her hands for a moment. Then, when Jack had reached the park gate, she stood up, saying, "I guess you're right."

Nico stood up as well, a wry smile on his face. "Of course I'm right," he said. "I'm me. I'm always right."

Alive just rolled her eyes, and the two of them hurried across the park, to rejoin their dark-bearded ally.

"Jack," Nico called out.

He paused.

"We won't ask you to fight with us," Alice said. "But can we still have the lift?"

Jack's shoulders relaxed as a tension that Nico hadn't previously noticed evaporated. He turned around, and grinned.

"That I can manage," he rumbled. "Follow me."

He led them across the road and down past a few houses, then into a side alley. It was a small shadowy place, with the sky almost completely blotted out by the trees, which formed a tent-like covering as they leaned towards one another across the alley. Tiny beams of light pushed through, and gave the alley a vaguely mystic quality.

Jack walked over to the wall on the right, and reached his hand out into one of the beams of light. Then he brought his hand down onto something invisible. There was a clunk, and a slow, rotating clicking noise. Nico blinked, and suddenly Jack was standing with his hand on the roof of a old-fashioned Cadillac.

Nico's mouth fell open.

"What, what," he spluttered.

Alice just stared in disbelief.

Jack looked up at them with a grin. "Weren't expecting that, were you?" he said. "Come on, get in."

Nico approached slowly. "What is it? Some sort of magic invisible car?" he asked, his tone one of awe.

"No, no," Jack replied. "Nothing so fancy as invisibility. It's camouflage! Wherever this baby goes, it can blend in with its surroundings more effectively than a politician on the campaign trail."

"The enchantments must be really complex," Alice muttered, drawing nearer. "I've read up on a lot of magical theory, and camouflage is no mean feat."

"True," said Jack.

She looked at him carefully. "They're the kind of enchantment that can only be performed by someone with very specific magical power, like a child of Hecate," she said.

His expression grew a little darker. "Aye, that's true. I knew a daughter of Hecate once, and a fine magician she was. A fine person, too."

He fell silent, staring at the car. Nico and Alice watched him cautiously, waiting for him to continue.

"Anyway, the point is," he said abruptly, moving over to the driver's door. "She wove the spells for this beauty. It's thanks to her you half-bloods are safe. I used this car when I was shooting at Phaethon, that time he got you into his chariot."

Nico nodded. "Thank you," he said quietly. He reached out for the handle of the car door. Then he paused.

"What was her name?" he asked.

Jack, now getting into the driver's seat, said nothing.

Nico glanced at Alice, who mouthed, "Just leave it."

He sighed, and got into the back seat of the car. Alice got in beside him, and Jack started the car.

"Keep an eye out for police," Nico said to him. "I think the guy at the gas station was going to call the cops after we left."

Jack snorted. "Nobody ever stops a big guy in a Cadillac," he grunted. With that, he turned the key, and started the car up.

Nico was far from a car aficionado - being stuck in a time-displaced hotel for seventy years tends to mess up one's knowledge of such things. Despite that, he was distinctly impressed by the deep rumble that the engine made as Jack started it. The son of Hephaestus let out a deep laugh, which was pretty rumbly itself. As he backed out of the alley, he chuckled a little more. Once the car was on the road and ready to go, he turned to face the two half-bloods.

"Oh," he said wryly. "I forgot to mention. The camouflage spells weren't the only upgrade I made on the car."

He revved the engine once or twice, then said, "I also rebuilt the engine with celestial bronze. This," he paused for dramatic effect, "is the most durable, most reliable, most efficient gasoline-fuelled car on the planet."

With that, he put the foot down, and they sped off.

They zoomed by the gas station, and Nico caught a glimpse of a bored-looking policeman talking to the teenager from earlier, whilst scribbling notes down in a book.

"I hope they don't come after us," Alice muttered worriedly.

Jack heard her, and snorted derisively. Nico noted that he seemed to be fond of doing that.

"Not gonna happen," the man said. "The mortals are blind and dumb compared to the half-bloods, and the half-bloods are idiots compared to the gods. The gods are dunderheads themselves, so you can appreciate just how useless the mortals are."

Nico heard a low roll of thunder over the purr of the car's engine, but it didn't seem to faze Jack. Alice, however, took offence at his remarks.

"That's not true," she said irritatedly. "The mortals aren't lesser than you or me. Just because they don't have the knowledge we have doesn't make them worthless."

Jack shook his head. "You've got a lot to learn, daughter of Apollo," he said. "The mortals don't see beyond their next pay check, or their next bottle of beer, or the next sports game. Oh, they talk about religion and the bigger picture, but they don't have a clue. To them, life is nothing more than a mad scramble for power, for identity."

Alice bristled. "And how are we any different? What makes the half-bloods any better than the mortals just getting on with their lives?"

"We're in touch with the bigger picture, the hidden meaning," Jack replied. "The mortals aren't. They believe life can be something other than it is."

"And what hidden meaning is that?" Alice shot back.

He glanced into the rearview mirror, meeting Alice's eyes for a moment. "Life sucks. There is no meaning. That's _it_," he said darkly.

A heavy silence fell upon the three of them. Jack drove on, saying nothing, for some ten minutes. When they came to a red light, he sighed.

"The mortals all think life can be something better, something nicer than what it already is," he said. "They don't understand that what we have is all there is. There is no golden age. There is no world peace. There's only death, greed, and darkness.

"To my mind, us children of the gods are more in touch with that, even if we prefer to deny it. We fight against the infinite darkness, the undying monsters, the yawning void, because we have to. But we all know deep down that it's futile. Maybe we will never be consumed by the dark. Maybe the fire will always stay alight. But no matter what we do, no matter how hard we fight, we'll always face another battle."

He fell silent again.

Nico glanced at Alice. Her face was dark, her posture tense. She stared out of the window as though she was staring into another world.

As they passed a sign informing them that they were entering San Francisco, she murmured, "You're wrong."

Jack shrugged. "Maybe so," he muttered. "But I as sure as hell haven't seen any evidence to say that I am."


	16. Chapter 16

**Author's Note: Big chapter is big. This is my second longest RotF chapter. Another two words and it would be the longest. Try not to die on the way through it.**

**And once more - I do not own Broken Bow or Armani Dove, but I have been given permission to use them in the way I have**.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. Tis all for fun.**

Rise of the Forgotten.

Chapter 16: Alcatraz

Jack dropped them off near the coast. He'd said little else for the rest of the drive, and he let them out with nothing more than a grunt of, "Good luck."

"Very contrary man," Alice muttered, scowling at the disappearing car.

Nico shrugged. He hadn't said anything while Alice and Jack had been arguing, and, though he didn't like to admit it, it had been partly because he found it hard to disagree with Jack. All his life, from his mother's death to his kidnap by Gaia, Nico had felt that the world was fundamentally a dark place. Maybe there was some meaning, some greater purpose, but Nico couldn't find it.

"He's had a hard life," he said. "You can't really blame him for being like that. If life had treated you the same as him, would you be any different? Would you not be a cynic?"

Alice looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, and then said, "I don't think I would be a cynic. I know there is darkness out there - too much - but I would always keep up hope."

"I guess that's the test, isn't it?" Nico said quietly. "Keeping up hope."

As if on cue, they both turned to survey the area around them.

Jack had brought them near to the port for the tourist trips to Alcatraz. Just a few feet away, tourists adorned with huge cameras and not much smaller baseball caps were getting their tickets checked as they filed onboard.

Nico checked his distinctly battered watch. It was in the middle of the day now, and the boats across weren't very frequent.

"We're going to have to get on that boat," he mumbled, rubbing his brow.

Alice felt in her pockets. Nico did the same. After a good deal of rummaging, they found they had less than a dollar between them.

"We can't buy tickets," Alice said redundantly. "We can't swim across, either. And," she paused and glanced around, "I don't see any helpful strangers with open wallets, do you?"

Nico shook his head. He knew what they had to do, but he didn't feel happy about it. He dug about in his pockets and pulled out two receipts from the previous days. He flattened them out carefully, and said to Alice, "Right. I know what to do. Just… say nothing and act natural."

He walked over to the boarding queue, Alice following. As Nico walked, he focussed his will carefully, and reached out for the Mist. He pictured what it was that he wanted the guard to believe, and held it at the forefront of his mind.

They got to the top of the queue, and Nico held out the receipts. As the guard stared at them, frowning with irritation, Nico made an effort of will and snapped his fingers.

The snap sounded out with an airy, echoey edge to it. The guard's eyes crossed for a second, and he looked dazed. He glanced up at Nico, shrugged, and waved them through.

Alice let out a sigh of relief once they were out of earshot.

"That was close," she muttered, as they found seats in a corner. "But you did great! That was cool. You manipulated the Mist, right?"

Nico nodded, his expression pained. "Yes," he said. "But I don't like using it like that."

"What do you mean?" Alice asked, puzzled.

The boat disembarked with a judder. The two half-bloods sat quietly as people bustled around taking pictures and finding packed lunches.

"I don't know," Nico said finally. "I'm not comfortable with playing around with the mortals' minds. It seems cruel, in a way."

"Even if it has to be done?"

"Even then," he replied. "It feels like I'm playing with something I shouldn't. Who am I to decide how another person perceives things? Who am I to manipulate another person''s mind with my powers?"

Alice didn't reply, and they both sat in silence.

The weather was decent, and the view was good, but Nico couldn't appreciate it. Perhaps it was merely his mind playing tricks, but as they drew closer to the island, the clouds seemed to grow darker, and the air seemed to get heavier. He could feel the approaching battle - Zeus knew he'd been in enough battles to know what they were like.

Though, this was the first time for him to be the one in charge. He was responsible for what choices were made, what tactics were used. Even though it was just him and Alice, he was still quest leader, and he couldn't overlook the responsibility that was on his shoulders.

Zeus Almighty, Nico thought. I will be so freaking glad when this quest is done.

He looked around at the normal people, who were having a memorable day out. It was some sort of dark irony - there Alice and Nico sat, preparing for their battle against the forces of darkness in an attempt to save the Flame, and, by extension, save civilisation. A few inches away, the biggest worry most people had was how much their ticket had cost, or how long the tour was going to take.

Nico wasn't sure whether to find that depressing or hilarious.

By this time, the ferry had reached Alcatraz. After much fumbling, searching, clasping, packing, and one woman searching for her misplaced phone with the kind of care and attention normally reserved for a missing child, the passengers tumbled out onto the island. Nico and Alice kept to the very back of the group, and carefully avoided making eye contact with anyone, so that they could slip away at any moment.

Nico consulted a map he'd picked up on the boat. Ignoring the irritatingly happy pictures and descriptions, he flipped over to the ground plan. He traced the route from the ferry port to the main prison, and then said to Alice quietly, "We're going to be walking for another while. I reckon wherever the Flame is, we'll find it by working from the prison."

Alice nodded, and Nico shoved the map into his pocket. He trudged along, lapsing back into his own gloomy thoughts.

His mind ticked away, planning and considering. He'd become quite cunning over the last few years - his father said it was a natural trait of most children of Hades. After all, the god of the dead had said, to control and command the shadows and the dead with ease, one had to have a mind far sharper than that which one sought to rule.

Nico had his limits, though. The annals of the Underworld held tales of children of Hades who'd used their powers to manipulate humanity with mastery unparalleled. Their names had been recorded in history down through the centuries, even if they hadn't been coupled with applause and good feeling.

This son of Hades had no inclination towards such grand acts. It came down to a simple reason, the same reason he didn't like manipulating mortals - he knew that those around him would never do something like that. He didn't have great amounts of empathy for the majority of the human race, but he respected the views of a small group of people, and if they wouldn't do something, he probably wouldn't either.

These thoughts, and other more tactical ones besides, occupied Nico's mind all the way to the prison. So distracted was he, he didn't even realise where he was, until Alice prodded him in the shoulder.

He looked around, and saw he was at the main entrance to the prison. One of his ideas from earlier resurfaced in his mind, and he slowed his pace. Alice glanced at him and slowed also, but didn't say anything yet.

Nico waited till they'd entered into the prison proper, and slipped off to one side, Alice right beside him. The tour group slowly wandered on, paying the teenagers no notice.

They walked over to a shadowy corner, and Nico weaved a quick concealment around them, so that no curious or bored guards could interrupt their plans to save the world on the basis of their apparent loitering.

"You've got a plan, then?" Alice whispered, her eyes watching the tour group… watchfully.

"Yes," Nico replied. "Uh. It's sort of complicated."

"You don't have to explain it to me!" she hissed back. "Just do it!"

He nodded sheepishly, and turned to face the wall. Placing his palms on the brickwork and closing his eyes, he began.

Hades had once explained the nature of the universe to Nico.

It sounds terribly complicated and elaborate when it's put like that, but it was a very simple lesson on energy.

"Everything is made up of energy and matter," he'd said, as they'd sat in the Underworld Library.

Nico really hadn't been interested, but he'd nodded anyway.

"Everything is made up of it, and everything is born of it," he'd gone on.

Nico had half-dozed through much of the rest of the lecture, but he had picked up a few useful facts. The _only_ useful facts on the topic, Nico would say.

One was that energy should always be present outside of a vacuum.

The second was that the older something was, the more energy it accumulated. Unfortunately for those things that happened to be alive, the older they were the more energy they needed to stay alive, and so they failed to benefit from their Cosmic Energy Pension.

Things that _weren't_ alive, on the other hand, didn't use energy, and thus they developed uniform fields of energy around them.

The third was that if you could tap into the energy of an object or place, it was possible to read it like a map. Because it always had an even distribution, to read the energy was to read the structure of the object.

And fourthly - children of Hades, due to being very close to energy and the power of life and death, had the ability to tap into energy and read it. This was the basis of aura-reading.

It was a skill that required great focus and much practice, and it was a skill that Nico was about to use.

He calmed his mind, stowing all thoughts of worry and fear away into little compartments. He created a blank field in his mind, like a perfectly clear canvas. Breathing in and out carefully, Nico reached out with his senses. The bricks under his fingers seemed to hum slightly as he became aware of the residual energy pulsing through them.

In some distant way, he heard Alice sigh an impatient sigh, but it barely registered. His mind was completely fixed on the energy of Alcatraz. Gradually, Nico became increasingly conscious of the energy throughout the building. The awareness of it seeped in slowly, like a small stream of water running through a hole in a dam.

And, like many dams, sooner or later it had to break. Nico tightened his concentration still more, as the moment approached. There would come a point when his mind would be exposed to all the energies of the building, and if he wasn't careful, it could destroy his mind with the ease of a bulldozer killing a gnat.

Praying to any and all deities in existence that he wouldn't be interrupted at the wrong moment, Nico drew in a breath slowly, and let the energy flood into his mind.

For a single, terrible second, it felt as if it was too much. So much energy had accumulated at Alcatraz over the years, the flood into Nico's mind felt as if the entirety of the Pacific Ocean was streaming into a two-litre water bottle. In that second, Nico felt a deep sense of panic, as he fought to martial the flood and retain his mind.

Then, something his father had told him floated back to the surface of his consciousness.

"The power of the symbol is the power to rule."

Nico hadn't had a clue what Hades had been going on about at the time, but now he thought he understood.

Nico pictured the waters of the energy streaming in, and he imagined them pouring into a huge stone basin. He focussed on that, letting the basin symbolise his mind.

Then, he imagined a gate on the far edge of the bowl opening, letting a small tributary of the waters out. Bearing the blank field in mind, he guided the water onto the canvas, and let it settle. With one last effort of will, he concentrated on the building of Alcatraz itself.

Within seconds, a glowing map of the prison had formed in Nico's mind's-eye.

He let out a gasp of relief.

"I have it!" he spluttered out, as his awareness descended back onto the more physical plain.

"Great!" Alice replied. Nico could almost hear her frown. "What do you have, exactly?"

If his eyes weren't closed, he would have rolled them. "A complicated thing," he said solemnly. "Anyway, give me a moment."

"Okay," she said quietly. "But you'd better hurry - we've been here a while, and I think the concealment thing has stopped working."

Nico didn't reply, instead focussing on the map. The energy lines were uniform throughout, but as he looked closer, he could see a disturbance. The energy flickered, as his concentration nearly buckled under the strain of continued use. He paused for a breath, and then looked again.

"Strange," he murmured. There was some kind of void in one room in the prison. The energy was regular and even everywhere else, but at that point it faded out and there was nothing but a black space. Nothing was there, which was a little too obvious. It was as though…

"Oh," he breathed, as comprehension hit him forcefully. He sighed, and released his will. The map faded, the basin drained away, and he opened his eyes.

Upon turning back around to face Alice, Nico nearly collapsed. The sheer concentration and willpower he'd used had really taken it out of him. Alice gazed at him with no small amount of concern, as he sank down to a crouching position.

He said nothing for a few moments, as he gradually regained his energy. Soon, he felt recuperated enough to stand up.

"I know where we have to go," he muttered. Then he staggered off, rubbing his head.

The two demigods hurried towards a stairwell, Nico in the lead. Following what he could remember of his mental map, the son of Hades headed for a place that was rather familiar to him.

As they drew nearer, Nico slowed, feeling weary. That had been the largest-scale energy-reading he'd ever done. Zeus only knew if he'd have enough strength to do whatever other tricks that could be required that day.

Alice, who had gone a few steps ahead, stopped suddenly. Nico glanced up, and saw that they'd found the right place.

There were two cells, on two stories. Each one still had a bar of Stygian iron running along the bottom. It was still there after several years - the mortals hadn't touched it.

Probably because they couldn't see it.

"What is this?" Alice asked.

Nico walked over to the bars, looking through them.

"I was here before," he said. "When the Hunters of Artemis were kidnapped and brought here, I helped Armani Dove rescue them. This," he waved at the Stygian bar, "blocked Artemis's vision at the time, and hindered her. This time, though, it helped."

Alice frowned. "How?"

"The iron blocks and negates all energy," Nico said. "It creates a field of blankness. I picked up on it, and here we are."

Alice walked over to the bars, pensive. Her expression contained a mixture of worry and anger, as she peered into the dark.

"The perfect place to hide," she muttered.

"Yeah," Nico nodded. "There's probably a passageway or something over there. That's where we have to go."

He crouched on the ground, putting his back to the bars. "But let's take a rest."

Alice knelt down next to him. They both sat in silence for a minute or more, just staring at the ground. Luckily, that part of the prison wasn't on the main tour, and no curious travellers wandered by.

"Got any ambrosia?" Nico asked quietly.

Alice felt in her pocket, and drew out a very small and crumpled plastic bag. Unfolding it carefully, she revealed three squares of ambrosia.

"Great!" Nico said.

She passed him the bag, and he took out half a square. Eating it slowly, he handed the rest back, and closed his eyes.

The magical food didn't take long to have an effect. After thirty seconds or less, Nico felt a good deal better. Another minute, and he felt much stronger.

He opened his eyes. Alice was glaring into the shadows beyond the bars, her expression glum.

Nico, having precisely zero ideas of what would be a helpful thing to say, went for what was probably the least tactful and most unhelpful thing possible.

"You know we're going to face him very soon?" he said.

For the first time since Phaethon had destroyed the car, Alice looked rattled. The mask of composure that she'd carefully woven not long after that incident was slipping. Nico winced as he realised how insensitive he sounded.

"I know," she replied in a hard voice. She closed her eyes, and leaned her forehead against the bars.

Nico just sat there, feeling woefully ill-equipped and under-informed to be dealing with such complicated and unhelpful things as other people's emotions. Still not having a clue what to say, he decided that discretion was indeed the better part of valour, in this case, at least.

Instead, he focussed on preparing for the coming battle. He drew out his sword, and busied himself with cleaning it diligently. He made sure he had what he needed in his pockets, and straightened his clothes.

He stood up, which prompted Alice to open her eyes.

"We'd better get moving," Nico said. He offered Alice a hand.

She looked at him carefully for a moment, before grasping his hand and getting to her feet. She quickly checked her weapons, and then sighed.

"Right!" Alice said, her composure restored. "I'll think I'll waive on the standard 'ladies first' rule today."

Nico laughed darkly, and pushed open the bars.

Not sure what to look for, but sure that he'd know it when he saw it, Nico made his way to the back of the cell. To his infinite surprise, there wasn't a certain panel that had to be hit, or a brick that had to be pressed. There wasn't even a suspicious beam of light shining through an equally suspicious crack in the wall.

There was just a very grimy, wholly unremarkable, and distinctly unlocked service door.

"Huh," Alice said succinctly.

"Not exactly arcane, is it?" Nico said drily. Without further ado, he yanked the door open.

What was on the other side was a little more to Nico's expectations - a dark, shadowy, and notably unlit tunnel. Oh, and it was black.

"Anyone got a light?" Nico asked sarcastically. They'd lost their main torches when Phaethon trashed the car, so unless Alice had a tiny torch stuffed into a pocket—

"Actually, I think I have something," Alice said, right on cue.

Nico rolled his eyes as she rummaged. The universe really loved contradicting him.

Finally, the daughter of Apollo pulled out a very small torch. It was about three inches long, and the actual light was smaller than your average pea.

Nico stared at it.

"I don't think that would survive a quick drop onto a stone floor," he said darkly. "Hell, it'd be lucky if it survived a quick drop onto a foam floor."

Alice scowled at him. "It's all I have, okay? So unless you want to walk in the dark…"

He shrugged, and took it. Stepping up to the edge of the tunnel, he flicked it on. It was, Nico couldn't help noting, a good deal brighter than he'd expected.

"This another present of your dad's?" he asked, as he stepped into the tunnel.

"No," Alice replied. "It was a collaboration between the Hephaestus cabin and the Apollo cabin."

"Ah," Nico nodded. Then, tired with delaying with the inevitable, he started to walk.

It was a tight place, and the two half-bloods had to walk in single file. They shuffled along, Nico in the lead, watching out for any traps or pitfalls. There was no notable change in the tunnel as they went along, and luckily the walls didn't start to close in.

After trudging for ten minutes or more, they came out into a larger section of the passage. It was a good deal wider, though there weren't any helpful benches to be found. On the other hand, there was a lovely pile of bones.

Nico paused near them, catching his breath. He gazed down the tunnel thoughtfully, then turned to Alice.

"We're going to need a tactical advantage," he muttered, feeling in his pocket. "I have an idea."

About ten minutes later, the two heroes crept on.

After another few feet, Nico began to be aware of the atmosphere growing heavier, the tunnel becoming colder. Another few feet along, and a vague hum of magic and energy became obvious. It was vibrating through the tunnel, a low, wordless song of power.

He didn't need to be a demigod to sense that they were drawing closer to a powerful presence.

Then, as he shone the torch down the passage, he saw a widening-out further on. He realised they'd reached the end of the tunnel, and a chamber of some sort lay beyond.

Glancing back at Alice, Nico put a finger to his lips. He drew his sword as slowly and quietly as possible. His forehead beaded with sweat as he concentrated.

The distance to the beginning of the chamber grew smaller and smaller. Six paces away, then five, then four…

At two paces, Nico signalled over his shoulder at Alice. They both paused, before striding out into the chamber.

Nico didn't get a second to take in his surroundings, because he heard a sudden movement and a cry of surprise behind him. He span around immediately.

Now, the son of Hades was facing back down the tunnel.

He was also staring into the face of Jake Wilson, who had his back to the passage.

And who had one arm holding Alice from behind, and another arm holding a long, black knife to her neck.

Nico didn't blink.

"Nico," Jake said cordially, as though he wasn't holding someone at knifepoint.

"Jake," Nico replied, in an equally nonchalant manner.

The son of Erebus eyed him. "You don't seem surprised," he said softly.

"I'd have to be a fool or a blind man to be surprised," Nico replied, shrugging. "It's not hard to see what's right in front of you, so long as you're not afraid to look."

"Huh," Jake muttered. He twitched the knife against Alice's neck.

Events took a sudden turn from there.

She jerked, trying to break free. Jake held her in a fiercer grip, but Alice continued to struggle. Nico stepped forward to help, but suddenly Jake's hand was slipping, and Alice was still thrashing, and her eyes were mostly closed and she couldn't see.

And suddenly knife met neck.

And Alice's body dropped to the ground, still and silent.


	17. Chapter 17

**Author's Note: Forgot to say in the last A/N - a shout-out and a big thank-you to Road Lizard, who left the 100th review for this fic. I never even considered the idea of this story being so successful when I first began writing it, so thank you to Ro, and to everyone who has helped bring that review count so high.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. Tis all for fun.**

Rise of the Forgotten.

Chapter 17: The One in the Shadows

Jake stared down at the pile of bones with an expression of pure shock. A second after Alice's body had hit the ground, a ripple of shadow had flowed over the apparent corpse, and it had disappeared. Now, all that remained was a pile of very old bones.

The son of Erebus looked up at Nico, who was standing on the same spot, with the same nonchalant expression. To the observant eye, however, it was clear that a load of previously unnoticeable tension had lifted off Nico's shoulders.

"What the hell is going on?" Jake spat.

Nico didn't reply. Instead, he very slowly turned his gaze to something over Jake's shoulder.

Perhaps Jake drew a note of warning from Nico's eyes, or perhaps he sensed the approach of danger. Either way, he ducked to one side, barely dodging a solid blow that would have knocked him flat at the very least. Then, he turned, to see who had assaulted him.

From a shadowy corner of stone, a foot away from Jake, Alice stepped out, her sword aloft. Her eyes bore into Jake's as she stepped forward, and it was indisputably clear that she had not yet changed her biological status.

This appearance went a long way towards deepening Jake's shock. He stumbled backwards, sending the bones flying as he tripped over them.

A skull rolled out from the pile, and a small black crystal dropped out of one of its eye sockets. It skittered a few inches towards Nico, who bent down quickly and snatched it up. Then, he unclasped a tiny chain from his neck, from which hung a second crystal, an identical twin of the other. Nico dropped the chain into his back pocket, before withdrawing a small pitch black box. With great care, he placed the two crystals into the box, and stowed them both away.

This he did as quickly as possible, hardly even taking his eyes off Alice and Jake.

The son of Erebus moved into a fighting stance. "Playing games, are we?" he sneered, covering his surprise.

"You're the one who's been playing games, Jake Wilson," Alice said quietly. She took a step towards him, and he stepped backwards, both of them moving almost in unison.

"You thought you could play me like a fiddle," she went on. "Manipulate me like the shadows you love."

"And I did!" Jake snapped back, his hand sneaking down to his belt. "You'd be on my side if it wasn't for him," he jerked his head at Nico. "Hades, you _should_ be on my side."

Alice's expression darkened, and she lunged at Jake with her sword. He parried easily, swatting the blade away with his knife. Then he turned, and ran away from Nico and Alice, and further into the chamber.

Nico turned to watch him, and so got his first opportunity to take in his surroundings.

It was an almost cavernous place, with the ceiling twenty feet up. Nico had a feeling they were deep underground, perhaps under the sea, and only enchantments were keeping the place in a stable state. The only light came from blazing torches, which were mounted in free-standing stone columns every four feet.

The floor of the chamber itself extended out quite far. From end to end, it could have been half a mile long. Most of it were almost completely dark, however. Only one small, circular area was lit, and the rest stretched away at the far end of the chamber.

That small area was encircled by the stone columns. The torches atop those columns burned bright, and illuminated the inside of the circle, in which there were several smaller concentric circles, drawn onto the stone floor with chalk and, in the case of the smallest circle, salt. From edge to edge, the outer circle was around fifteen feet wide. Nico and Alice stood just outside of it.

In the central ring, there lay a curious sight. Standing upright within the ring of salt was a massive stone coin. At least, that's the first thing Nico thought of when he saw it. It was, again, circular. It was eight feet tall, and perhaps four feet deep. It had a strangely untouched appearance, as though it had sat there underneath Alcatraz for an eon.

The stone itself was unremarkable - dull, grey, and generally standard rock. It had one simple yet remarkable feature - an engraving of the Greek letter P, which Nico knew was the equivalent of the Latin R. It was carved deep into the rock, and Nico could sense the power emanating from it.

Into the outer circle Jake had stepped. He was making his way over to a small casket, which was near to the central ring.

Nico heard a sharp intake of breath to his left, and he looked over to see Alice. She was staring at the casket with glassy eyes.

"We need to stop him," she muttered. "Now."

Remembering the daughter of Apollo's premonition capabilities, Nico didn't argue. He tightened his grip on his sword, and charged into the circle.

As he passed the first ring of stone columns, he felt a judder, and he was forced to slow down, as though he was passing through treacle. His Stygian sword moved in his hand, as though it was trying to bend away from the circle. Drawing on his innate stubbornness, Nico pushed through the barrier, and the resistance melted away.

He crossed a chalk circle, and he felt the same barrier, but this time it was weaker. Behind him, Nico could hear Alice struggling against the initial circle. Whatever it was, the resistance was strong indeed to pose a problem to two powerful half-bloods.

He reached Jake just as the teenager knelt down in front of the casket. He swiped at him with the sword, but Jake heard it, and quickly dodged. Nico tried to bring the sword down on his arm, and the son of Erebus rolled out of the way. Then he got to his feet, once more bringing out his knife.

"I thought you fought with swords," Nico said, as he stepped back for a second.

"Oh, I do," Jake replied, keeping in step with Nico. "I _fight_ with swords. I _win_ with knives."

His cold, jeering tone incensed the son of Hades, and he went in for another attack. With anger and frustration, Nico hammered at Jake. All the pent-up fury, all the feelings of betrayal that had being lying dormant for days, were now flying free. The burning need to make Jake suffer, the desire Nico had had since that night in the motel, was finally being released.

The target of the torrent of fury quickly registered what was happening. Jake didn't seem surprised by it, however. He simply recognised it, considered it, and worked his battle strategy around it.

Nico got in close, trying to land a strike. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Alice, hovering with her sword in her hand. Perhaps she was waiting for an opening, or perhaps she was afraid to come to close, lest she be accidentally injured by Nico's onslaught.

Either way, in that moment, it was just those two sons of shadows, fighting in the flickering light of half a dozen flames.

Jake swung in towards Nico's shoulder, attempting to give him a painful wound. The son of Hades caught Jake's attacking arm with one hand, and carefully began to push the weapon back. Struggling, Nico's opponent tried to break free. His eyes narrowed, his fist curled, and Jake punched at Nico's head.

In a flash of ruthlessness and skill, borne from rage and experience, Nico got a foot behind Jake's, and he tripped him over. He brought the traitor to the ground with a grunt. Jake lifted the knife to bring it into Nico's leg, but Alice stepped forward, and kicked it away. The weapon disappeared into the shadows beyond the circle with a clatter.

Nico rested his sword point under Jake's chin. Now that he'd won a fight, the son of Hades felt calmer, but his anger bubbled away, a little under the surface.

Alice glared down at Jake, clenching her sword so tightly that the handle began to creak. He himself said nothing, merely staring over the shoulders of his assailants, with an irritatingly blank expression.

Alice broke the silence. "Why, Jake?" she whispered.

His eyes flicked over to her, and for once emotion was clearly visible. Anger and pain glared out like two slavering wolves. He raised his head ever so slightly, his chin brushing the dark edge of Nico's sword.

Jake paused before he replied. Nico couldn't help but be amazed by how he seemed unfailing in his ability to bring emotion under the command of logic.

"Why?" Jake echoed. "What is my favourite game, Alice?"

She blinked at this question, and stumbled over her reply, "Er, chess…"

"Right," said Jake. "Life is nothing more than an enormous game of chess. You have the kings, the knights, the pawns…"

He paused again, staring into space. "I am the only son of an ancient deity, a force older than the gods," he went on. "I will not be a pawn to anyone. I play the game. I will never be a pawn."

Nico rubbed his forehead. In many ways, what Jake said made sense. It went beyond the gods, beyond Olympus. It was the question of whether you controlled your own fate.

Jake grinned wickedly. "Now this, for instance, is an interesting game we're playing," he said, in the tone of someone about to play a winning move. "And, Nico, I'm sorry, but you've made a dreadful tactical error."

Nico barely even had the time to exclaim, "What?" In a fluid movement, Jake reached into the patch of shadow cast by Alice. There was a rushing sound, like air being rapidly displaced, and he withdrew his Stygian knife from the darkness.

In alarm, Nico took a step back. Jake slapped away his sword, and cried out at the top of his voice, "Phaethon!"

Then he tried to stab Nico in the leg again. To the left there was the noise of a scuffle. Out of the corner of his eye, Nico saw that the son of Apollo was restraining Alice. He stepped back from Jake, but the son of Erebus had found his feet, and he kept coming. Alice gave a snarl of anger as Phaethon got her to the ground.

As Nico was distracted by Alice's struggle, Jake swooped in and knocked his sword out of his hand. The son of Hades stumbled back and, in the absence of any strategy or weapon, slipped right out of the outer circle. He stepped into the shadows beyond the torchlight, and hurriedly concealed himself.

In the circle, Jake stopped, glaring out into the dark. Then he turned around, and muttered, "We'll continue with the ritual."

There was a rattle of both metal chains and curse words as Phaethon shackled Alice to a rock. She had spirit, but her lack of experience when it came to entity-on-entity fighting cost her dearly.

Nico lurked in the dark, considering his options. Jake picked up his Stygian sword and tossed it unceremoniously at the freestanding rock in the salt ring. It hit the Greek letter, and there was a flash. A second later, and a small pile of dust was settling in front of the stone.

Nico stared at it in shock.

The perpetrator of this destruction returned to the casket, and knelt down. He rested his hands on the lid, and called out, "This is what happens when you fight me, Nico. There's no out, no hidden road to success. Whatever you do is doomed."

Nico just rolled his eyes at this grandiosity. Putting aside the loss of his sword for the moment, he began to pace around the circle, and as he did so he replied, "Funny. I hear that a lot, and it's usually followed by the person who says it experiencing death or grievous injury."

"You know, I really believed you were on my side for a while," Jake shot back, trying to throw the other half-blood off-balance. "Your apparent act was oddly convincing."

"What are you implying?" said Nico, though he knew exactly what was being implied.

Jake shrugged, and flipped the lid open. "You do what you know, I guess," he replied. Then he reached into the casket, and lifted out the Flame of Olympus.

It was unremarkable at first glance, which didn't surprise Nico. He didn't think Hestia to be the kind of goddess who'd have a ridiculously ornate sacred item.

It looked very much like an old-fashioned lantern, like something you'd see in an old movie or painting. It was a standard size, and not unusually bright. The only stand out features to it were that it was made almost entirely of celestial bronze, and it had a certain shine to it, as though it was something that could never be tarnished.

Jake stood up, leaving the casket open, and stepped over to the stone. He pressed a small button on the top of the lantern, and a jet of bright flame blossomed out from the Flame. Nico watched, transfixed, as Jake pointed the stream of fire at the ring of salt, carefully setting the entire circle alight. Then, he tossed the sacred item at the stone.

There was another flash, and a thud as metal hit stone. When the afterglow faded from Nico's eyes, he saw that the Flame was still intact, but a deep crack had appeared in the stone. It was slowly spreading across the stone, and a dull glow became visible through it.

The flames in the salt circle suddenly sparked, and they began to climb into the air, but not in an even wall. The fire rose in pillars, all around the stone. In a matter of seconds, several columns of flame surrounded it.

"What are you doing?" Alice breathed.

Jake smiled. "I am releasing her. For eons she has been imprisoned here, trapped inside the stone, forgotten. Now, watch as the precious fire of the gods is used against them. It will burn away her bonds, and soon she will rise. The forgotten Titan, once cast away, will be reborn."

Nico took all this in with a sense of horror and realisation, and found the ultimate question rising to his lips. "Who?" he shouted. "Who is this Titan?"

The son of Erebus turned in the direction of Nico's voice, his smile still fixed on his face. "Why, the one whom everyone knows but always forgets," he called in reply. "The mother of the gods, consort of Kronos. Rhea, queen of the Titans."

The chamber had been quiet before, but now it seemed to fall into an even deeper silence. It was an eerie scene - the flames crackling around the prison of Rhea, slowly burning away her bonds; Phaethon, standing quietly next to Alice, his expression pensive; Alice, looking at a loss for words; Jake, in the middle of it all, seeming quite in control; and Nico, on the edge, desperately trying to find a way out.

The stony silence was broken by a deep rumble. It seemed at first to be an earthquake of some sort, but Nico listened harder. A chill went down his spine as he realised it was laughter. Pure, deep, and very evil laughter.

"So surprised, godlings," rumbled the voice of Rhea. It reverbated through the whole cavern, making it seem like the Titan was standing behind everyone's shoulders, though the voice was coming from the freestanding stone alone.

"Did neither of you ever think it odd that there was no mention of me in your mortal mythology after I helped overthrow Kronos?" she went on. There was another low roll of laughter, more like a chuckle this time, before Rhea said, "Of course not. After all, I faded from the memory of all but the oldest gods. Not long before Kronos was cast down into Tartarus, he fought me. Though I am the wiser, he was the stronger, and he imprisoned me deep in this stone.

"And so I was trapped here for thousands of years, always moving as the West moved, always there but forever on the edge."

Jake picked up the thread, saying, "But with all the recent wars and awakenings, Lady Rhea was stirred, and her prison began to open."

The words of the prophecy came back to Nico as he took it all in. The land of the forgotten fight, an ancient power, it seemed to be all there, it certainly all made sense. Surely this was the surprise the heroes had to overcome, Nico thought. And yet it it felt as if the final piece of the puzzle had not yet been put in place.

Not that it mattered, he decided. He had no sword, no shadow-travel, no hope. There was nothing he could do but watch as the Flame released a Titan and began a war.

Surely by the gods it couldn't get any worse.

"Now, Jake Wilson," Rhea commanded. "It is time to complete the ritual."

Jake bowed his head slightly, and reached into the casket once more.

A sudden shiver of foreboding snaked its way down Nico's back. He glanced at Alice, who was staring at the casket with a look of purest horror.

Jake lifted a second object out of the box.

Silence fell once more. Time seemed to drag as Nico stared at the new object. Words repeated by Chiron since the night of the quest echoed through his mind, and one single line from the prophecy, the line most overlooked by him and Alice both, rang through his mind like a clarion call.

_Or hope itself will be decayed._

Nico stared, and stared, as cold, horrible realisation bore its way through his skull.

He'd been wrong.

Things _could_ get worse.

For Jake hadn't just stolen the Flame of Olympus from the throne room of the gods.

He'd also stolen Hope itself.


	18. Chapter 18

**Author's Note: It seems fitting that this, the climactic chapter of the story, is the longest one so far! XD**

**Only one chapter left after this. The end is nigh.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. Tis all for fun.**

Rise of the Forgotten.

Chapter 18: A Dark Light

Jake inspected Pandora's pithos with a proprietorial air. "When I stole these two items from Olympus," he said quietly. "It was almost funny. They were completely unguarded. The gods, they're so arrogant. They couldn't imagine that anyone would dare to steal such powerful objects."

He carefully placed the pithos on the ground in front of the central circle. Then, Jake strolled closer to the edge of the outer circle.

"Don't you ever get tired of them, Nico?" he called out. "Don't you ever wish the gods had never entered your life?"

Nico shrugged in the dark. He did get tired and jaded, of course, but he couldn't concede that to Jake. Instead, he replied: "Yeah, but there's a difference between being angry with the gods and being an outright traitor to the gods and my friends."

"You think me a common traitor?" said Jake, pacing around the edge of the circle.

"No, I think you a good friend," Nico said sarcastically. "Of course I think you a traitor."

Jake sighed. "I am far beyond a simple traitor. I'm more of a… visionary."

As the son of Erebus talked, Nico glanced over at Alice. To his surprise, he saw that Phaethon was crouching on the ground next to her, and Alice herself was whispering to him quietly. Phaethon was still staring at the stone floor, but his expression had changed to one of deep conflict. Alice caught Nico's eye, and made a motion with her hands. The meaning was clear - keep Jake talking.

To that aim, Nico said, "I do admit you're pretty clever. That was a tricky sort of game you played, all the way across the country."

"It was, wasn't it?" Jake said with pride. "After I stole the Flame and the pithos, I knew I wouldn't be able to shadow-travel very far with it. The energy traces would show up during any long journeys. Once all travel apart from ground travel was shut down, it was clear that I had to bring it across the country under the guise of the quest. The fact that I was basically named in the prophecy was a stroke of luck."

"And so you had the perfect getaway," Nico muttered. "But then you ran into a problem, didn't you?"

Jake's expression darkened. "Yes," he muttered back. "That blasted Fury. Were it not for the fact that I'd transferred some of the Flame into Alice, I would have been caught then."

Nico frowned. Here was something even he hadn't managed to figure out. "You did what?" he asked.

"You really need to study this kind of thing more, Nico," said Jake condescendingly. "The Flame of Olympus is in two parts - the purely physical container, and the intangible energy of the fire. The energy usually inhabits the coals in the hearth, but I couldn't exactly run off with a bucketful of Olympian coals, so I simply absorbed the energy, the power of the hearth, as it were. "

He stopped pacing, and stood still, leaning against one of the stone columns. Only several feet away, Nico lurked.

"You absorbed the energy of a powerful godly object?" Nico muttered flatly, his tone communicating exactly what he thought of that course of action.

Jake laughed. "It really wasn't all that bad. I was prepared for it in advance, and when the time came it was no issue."

"So that absorbed energy was giving you away, wasn't it?" said Nico. "The other two traces you could just about cover, but the trace coming from you was impossible to conceal."

"Almost impossible," Jake corrected him. "Nothing is completely impossible, the only restraint is one's own level of ingenuity and committal. With unlimited ingenuity comes unlimited power."

"You're making me roll my eyes an _awful_ lot today, Jake," Nico replied sharply.

Jake shrugged. "See, it's that kind of flippant attitude that guarantees you'll forever be nothing more than a pawn of the gods," he said airily. "But I digress. I absorbed the energy, but by the time we were on the train I knew it was going to give me away if I didn't find a solution. After thinking for hours, and having a little mental chat with Rhea, I hit upon the solution."

"Which was?" Nico asked, as he slowly and quietly stepped away.

"I realised I could transfer the power into someone else and so divert attention from me," Jake continued. "And that someone else happened to be Alice."

Nico glanced over at the daughter of Apollo when she was mentioned, to see what her reaction would be, but she seemed not to be paying any attention to the two sons of shadow. Instead, she was intent on Phaethon, whispering to him frantically. Nico couldn't hear her, and he had no idea what she was doing, but he prayed with every fibre of his not very large being that her plan would work, whatever it was.

"After all, Nico, did you not think it a little odd when you woke up to see Alice and me in such a position that morning on the train?" said Jake.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Nico couldn't help but feel a little bit awkward. It was in moments like this that his complete non-existence of any experience in the affairs of the heart really became obvious.

"Uh," he said, eloquently. "I didn't really think much of it, to be honest. I mean, it was a little odd, but then what would I know…"

Jake laughed yet again. It was really starting to get annoying. "Well, suffice to say that my plan succeeded. When the agent of the Underworld appeared to investigate, my hands were clean. That was perhaps one of my best accomplishments of misdirection."

Then, without moving or looking away from the shadows, he said calmly, "Step away from the pithos, please, Nico."

As the son of Hades spat out a curse, Jake turned around. While they'd both been talking, Nico had indeed crept over to the central circle, and was now a mere two steps from Elpis' container. Disregarding Jake's warning, he reached towards the pithos.

In a flash, he suddenly found himself being thrown to the ground by tendrils of grey-green smoke, which were creeping out from the base of Rhea's stone. Nico struggled, but he was fighting an intangible foe. Somehow, even though the smoke seemed completely insubstantial, it forced him onto the ground into a sitting position, and held him there, no matter how hard he fought.

Jake started to stroll over to Nico, his expression filled with inexplicable disappointment.

"I was beginning to respect you, you know," he said. "I thought perhaps we could join forces, or at the least you could have had an honourable death. But Nico, _really_. Trying such an obvious ploy is so very ridiculous. You disappoint me."

Nico opened his mouth to make an acidic reply, but paused as a strange noise filled the chamber. It sounded like a solid piece of metal being slowly and painfully warped and broken from the inside out. It combined the rough-edged noise of fingernails on a chalkboard, the implacable deepness of a rumble of thunder, and the painful whine of a dying engine, into one chaotic conglomeration of sound.

It emanated from Rhea's prison. The pillars of flame that surrounded the stone were beginning to crack and fracture - as Nico watched, one pillar spilt in two and started to crumble.

"The prison is breaking down," Jake shouted, when the noise level had dropped slightly. "The wards are falling away. The ritual must be completed, and then Lady Rhea will be released. Soon, the gods will, to use a mortal expression, meet their maker."

The noise finally died away, but cracks continued to sneak across the pillars of flame. Rhea's voice rolled through the chamber again. "Hurry, Wilson," she said. "The ritual must be completed."

Jake nodded in the direction of the stone, and started to turn towards Alice. Nico, desperate to buy her the time she needed, called up to the traitor.

"So you're just going to leave me here to die as the prison breaks open, are you?" he said angrily. "What sort of treatment is that for a fellow demigod of the shadows?"

Jake turned back to him, a faint smile on his lips, but it didn't reach his eyes. He glared at Nico darkly.

"Well, of course," Jake murmured, his tone chiding. "What else would I do?" He paused, his expression changing to one of bemusement. "You forget, Nico," he went on. "I have, in fact, read the Evil Overlord List. You could say that I've studied it religiously."

With that, he turned on his heel. Nico could think of no other way to buy time, and he watched helplessly as Jake strode over to Alice.

Somehow, though, it seemed that in that moment, the universe decided to give Nico and Alice an olive branch. For whatever it was the daughter of Apollo had been saying to her half-brother, it appeared she'd reached the climax of it. As Jake approached, her eyes became glassy, as they often did when she was having a moment of foresight. She grabbed Phaethon's hand, and things really got dramatic.

For just a second, nothing happened. Nico once more felt like time had slowed as he watched, praying that Alice had found a solution. Jake quickened his pace, frowning at her puzzling behaviour. He was only a few feet away when a bright circle of golden light sprang up around the two children of Apollo.

It was bright, perhaps as bright as the sun itself. Jake stumbled backwards in surprise, rubbing his eyes. Nico shaded his own eyes with one hand, and squinted through the light.

Both Alice and Phaethon appeared to be unconscious, except for one puzzling detail - they were both on their feet. Their eyes were closed, and Alice was still holding on tight to Phaethon's hand. The golden light pulsed around them like a shield. Jake thrust his knife towards the light, but the blade simply glanced off the outer edge of the golden circle.

"What the hell is going on?" he spat furiously, rounding on Nico. "Is this your doing? What magic is this?"

Nico, just as confused as Jake if not more, shrugged bemusedly. Unsurprisingly, this enraged the son of Erebus even more. He growled, drawing back his knife, as if he was about to throw it at Nico. For once, his mask of composure was slipping, and Jake seemed on the edge of going completely berserk. A second before the blade left his hand, he paused, as though listening to something, and finally drew in a calming breath.

Meanwhile, in the circle, Phaethon was shuddering. He crumpled to the ground, his eyes still closed. Alice went with him, somehow managing to maintain her grip on his hand. They both lay on the stony ground for ten seconds more, before the light began to slowly fade.

The shielding energy dissipated into nothing. Alice's eyes opened, and Nico let out the breath he'd been holding since the moment she had gone unconscious. Jake quickly stepped over to her as she stirred. He gave her a moment to readjust, before dragging her upright.

"What was all that about?" he demanded, shaking her arm roughly. "Some sort of Apollian magic, eh?"

Alice didn't respond. She avoided Jake's gaze, and swayed from side to side. Whatever she'd done, it had really taken its toll. Nico felt a deep and chilling sense that the half-bloods had just used up their last card. The question now was whether it would be enough.

Phaethon remained prostrate on the ground. Jake shuffled over to him, whilst keeping Alice restrained. He prodded his henchman in the shoulder with one foot, none too gently. "Phaethon?" he growled. The son of Apollo made no response, and appeared to be still absent from the realm of consciousness. "Phaethon?" Jake said again, this time more loudly and impatiently.

Still, there was nothing. Phaethon lay as still and silent as a corpse. From a number of feet away, Nico couldn't be sure, but it looked like Phaethon had made his last stand.

Jake sighed darkly, and shrugged a little. "Fine then," he muttered, half to himself and half to Phaethon. "I'll finish this myself."

He walked back to Rhea's stone, which was still slowly cracking apart. Alice didn't struggle against him, and Nico could see her eyes were barely open. She didn't have much fight left in her, either.

"And now," Jake said. "To withdraw the other part of the Flame from dear Alice."

He let go of Alice, but she swayed again, as though she might fall. Just in time, Jake held her shoulders, before lowering her to the ground. Then he lifted up his knife.

For a terrible moment Nico thought Jake was about to cut Alice's throat. Instead, he reached down and made a small cut on her finger. Her blood shone on Jake's blade, contrasting horribly with the blackness of the steel.

With great care, Jake brought the knife up to shoulder level, making sure to keep it horizontal. He closed his eyes, and recited a short chant in Ancient Greek. Seven times he said it, quickly. As the last word of it finished echoing through the chamber, the blood on the blade burst into flame.

Nico had to look away from it, so bright was the light. _This_ was the pure Flame, and it was far stronger, far brighter, than what Nico had seen earlier. Even Jake kept his eyes away from it.

He brought the knife to the edge of the other, raging flames. With a jerk of the blade, he dislodged the pure Flame and sent it into the larger fire.

It fell from the knife like a solid object. When it merged with the other fires, they fell still for a moment. Then, in the blink of an eye, the flames roared up, becoming much brighter and larger. All the other torches in the chamber dimmed down to almost nothing, and the circle of fire made for an eerie light in the gloom. The pillars of fire that represented Rhea's bonds shattered from the inside, but they barely stayed together. All it would take now was one more strong push, and the Titan would be free.

And that strong push was what Jake planned to provide, as he reached down towards the pithos. Nico fought angrily against his own bonds, but they were too tough. There was nothing he could do but watch Jake push a domino that would destroy civilisation.

Of course, with his eyes fixed on Jake, he didn't see what was coming, which was probably just as well. In years to come, Nico would think back to that moment, and feel such a sense of relief that he hadn't been looking away from Jake.

For if he had, he surely would have given a cry of surprise, which indeed would have alerted Jake to the bronze sword hurtling towards the side of his head.

The son of Erebus had been able to avoid a sneaky blow when Alice had tried it, but now, with his attention entirely on releasing Rhea, he didn't sense it coming. The flat of the sword hit him hard, and knocked him to the ground, a mere second before he would have picked up the pithos.

Nico turned his head, amazed, to see who had done this.

And there, standing on the edge of the light of the Flame, stood Phaethon.

"What–" Nico stuttered in surprise. The son of Apollo glanced down at him, and they looked into one another's eyes.

The last time Nico had looked the man in the eye, he'd seen a glint of manic anger, a driving will for revenge, and the kindling fires of insanity.

Now, all that had been either washed away or reduced significantly. In Phaethon's eyes Nico saw a new calm, and a sense of fresh realisation.

Alice gave a wordless noise as she gained back some consciousness, and both male demigods broke their stares to look at her. She, in turn, stared up Phaethon, her expression flooded with disbelief.

"I didn't think it would actually work," she muttered, carefully propping herself upright on her elbows.

"It did," Phaethon replied. "Thank you."

He tensed, and whirled around, just in time to block a potentially deadly blow from Jake. The traitorous half-blood had gotten back on his feet, but he looked the worse for wear.

"Fool," he growled. "What do you think you're doing?"

"The right thing," was the reply.

Without further ado, they attacked one another.

It was a fearsome fight to watch. Jake was a tough and ruthless fighter, unafraid to use whatever means necessary. Phaethon, on the other hand, was more of a warrior, methodical but powerful.

Without taking his eyes off the fighting pair, Nico whispered to Alice, "What did you do? I mean, wow, well done."

She smiled ever so slightly, watching her half-brother.

"I showed him the future," she whispered back. "Well, a form of it. Two futures, each equally possible, but completely different. Two futures, only one step away, and the question of which one would come true resting on one choice. One man."

"Phaethon himself," breathed Nico, amazed.

"One was a future where Rhea wins, one not."

Nico frowned. "But… Phaethon was pretty freaking angry. How did you sort that out?"

"We communed thoughts in that moment," she explained. "Sometimes, very rarely, two children of the same god can do that. I guess that gave him a new mind on things."

They paused in their hurried conversation, as the duel reached a climax. Jake feinted, and Phaethon followed, not seeing it was a trick. The younger half-blood suddenly changed direction, catching his opponent off-guard. In a second, he'd stabbed Phaethon in the arm.

The son of Apollo staggered back, his face scrunched up with pain. The wound would not normally have been a lethal one, but Nico knew that the combination of Stygian steel and Phaethon's dubious mortality could well bode doom for the man.

Jake stared at his victim with eyes colder than the chilliest snow. He stepped forward, poised to make another strike, when Phaethon moved again.

Lunging under the teenager's open guard, Phaethon managed to slice Jake in the shoulder. The traitor snarled in agony, and dropped his knife. As he staggered back, Phaethon followed him, and reached out his left hand.

The air all around the two seemed to bend and contort. The once and soon to be dead man's face creased up even more, with exertion and pain both. He took a deep breath, and roared at the top of his voice, "Apollo."

Alice suddenly started, in great alarm, and lunged over to Nico. "Get down!" she shrieked, dragging Nico down, face-first.

The son of Hades closed his eyes, feeling completely left out of the loop.

Then, there was a great moment of pure light, light so bright it burned onto Nico's retinas, even through his eyelids.

It lasted only a second, and a second later he heard the sound of someone falling to the ground. Alice whispered that it was safe, and he looked up.

Several feet away, Jake was stretched on the ground, unconscious or dead. Next to him was Phaethon, who was on his knees, panting.

Nico sat up slowly, but was stopped from rising by the grey-green bonds. Phaethon's head was quite literally steaming.

"What was that?" Nico asked, very quietly.

"The ultimate light," Alice said. "Some children of Apollo are so in touch with the power of the sun, they can call upon it in its purest form. The only problem is," she paused, taking a deep breath, before finishing, "it can kill them."

At this, Phaethon looked up at the two teenage half-bloods. He staggered to his feet, and shuffled over to them.

"I didn't kill him," he growled. "Only knocked him out. But it's too much. I'm done."

Somehow, against logic, Nico felt pure sorrow for a man who just yesterday had been trying to kill him. "No!" he exclaimed. "There must be another way."

Phaethon smiled hollowly. "Oh, Nico," he wheezed. "Your determination is admirable. But… there isn't. I'm a dead man walking. I'm just glad I came to my senses. For that, you can thank Alice."

He took his sister's hand. "You did the only thing that could reach me," he said. "You brought light to me. You're a true daughter of Apollo."

Alice shook her head. Only now, after all the heartache she'd endured, did tears reach her eyes.

Phaethon's expression changed, as though he'd had an idea.

"But perhaps there is one more thing I can do," he said softly. He looked up at Rhea's prison, the bonds of which were nearly completely broken. "I can bring back the Flame."

"What? How?" Nico exclaimed, starting to feel fed up with always being the one confused.

"I can return to spirit form, and reach into the fire," Phaethon said. "I can draw out the Flame. I'll be destroyed completely, but it must be done."

"No!" Alice cried, her voice echoed around the chamber. "I didn't save you for you to do this!"

"Alice," he said. "I'm beyond saving. I shouldn't even be here. How I got out of the Underworld… well, that doesn't matter now."

He stepped towards the stone, shrugging off his cloak. The voice of Rhea, previously silent, rumbled, "Do not attempt this, godling. I will not be held back by a mortal."

"As the mortals say, Rhea," Phaethon growled back. "Bring it."

He glanced back down at Nico and Alice, and said, "Once I throw out the Flame, take it and run. Don't try to help me."

Alice got to her feet. "Thank you," she said.

"No," said Phaethon. "Thank _you_." He reached down, and passed her the pithos. He took in a breath, and stared into the shadows beyond the light. "Goodbye," he murmured.

Phaethon exhaled slowly, and as he did so, he faded into a column of grey mist. Like a sentient thunderstorm, the mist of Phaethon formed into a missile, and shot into the fire.

For a moment, everything was still. The flames stilled, the light of the stone froze.

Then, the stone itself shook, and things kicked into overdrive. The fire blazed and burned faster than before, as if it was fighting itself. For a few tense seconds, Nico watched.

The Flame lantern flew out. Alice caught it just before it crashed onto the ground. Nico's bonds melted away, as the prison of Rhea started to re-form. He sprang up, and turned to go, when he remembered how there were in fact two parts to the Flame.

Turning back around, Nico saw the fire churn like boiling water, which was a strange thing to see. A jet of pure golden fire shot out, and arched through the air towards him. Instinctively, he reached out a hand to meet it, fingers outstretched.

There was just a moment for Nico to recall the scornful response he'd made to Jake when the son of Erebus had mentioned that he'd absorbed the energy of the Flame.

Oh, irony, Nico thought resignedly, before the Flame met his fingers.

The immediate sensation was that of being burned alive. Nico had no idea what to do, and so simply did what felt instinctive. He reached within himself, drawing out his inner darkness, and called upon it. All his shadows, all his dark thoughts, everything - he brought it out, and put it between him and the pure energy of the Flame.

He felt the shield spring up, and Nico avoided setting his mind on fire by a hair's-breadth. The energy finally spread out through his whole body, and all was calm.

Well. Apart from the collapsing chamber and the furious Titan attempting to escape.

Nico wheeled about, glancing at Alice. She was staring at him with great worry. He gave her a reassuring nod, and gestured towards the tunnel back to the surface. Without further ado, they both opted for a tactical retreat.

They ran out of the circle, away from the growing storm of magic and fire. The whole chamber seemed to be shaking, and somehow, through all the chaos, Nico thought he saw Jake sit up.

They reached the mouth of the passage. Alice tore on, but Nico stopped for a moment, looking behind him.

Rhea's stone was the centre of a swirling vortex that was slowly bending in on itself. Every atom of it seemed to fighting every other atom. The chamber shook and shook, grinding and juddering.

Then, there was a clear point of silence. It was in that moment that Nico heard a voice echoing through the chamber. Jake's voice.

"This is not the end, Nico. No matter what you do, no matter how hard you fight, you will never defeat me. This is far from the final battle. It's the start. The beginning, of the rise of the forgotten."

Nico didn't hang about to see what happened next. He wheeled around, and ran, faster than he ever had before.


	19. Chapter 19

**Author's Note: And here we are. The final chapter.**

**First, thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favourited, and alerted this story. Every single one of you has helped me finish this. An extra special thank you to those hardy souls who reviewed every single chapter, even the chapters that weren't too good.**

**Second, this is not the end. I am working on a five-book OC saga, entitled "Piece of Darkness". It will be set in the same PJO-verse as RotF. The first book will hopefully be out by September.**

**Third, this story has vastly outstripped my expectations in terms of review count. It's been quite amazing. Also, in terms of word count, it was not originally intended to be so long, but it just sort of happened. XD**

**Finally, please enjoy this final chapter, and leave your thoughts on it, and indeed on the whole story, in a review. Thank you.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. Tis all for fun.**

Rise of the Forgotten.

Chapter 19: Halfway out of the Dark

Nico and Alice burst out of the tunnel, into the cell in which they'd found the tunnel door. Alice crumpled to the ground in exhaustion, but Nico stayed standing. He slammed the tunnel shut, locked it, and pocketed the key.

He crouched down next to Alice, who'd shuffled over to the darkest corner of the cell, and was now leaning against the wall.

She looked at Nico and, without warning, burst into tears.

She sobbed and sobbed, and it was clear that she wasn't just crying for Phaethon. Nico patted her awkwardly on the shoulder, unsure what else to do.

Luckily, her sobs weren't too loud, Nico noted, for if they had been, it would have surely attracted the attention of a guard hoping for something exciting. He couldn't afford to do any more shadow concealments - he needed to conserve his energy for one last journey.

Finally, Alice stopped crying, and she looked somewhat calmer, as though much of the emotion had drained away with the tears. She rummaged in her pockets, and brought out the bag of ambrosia. Nico took half of it gratefully, and she munched on the rest.

They sat in silence for a few minutes.

Then, when Nico felt he, and hopefully Alice too, had gotten their composure back, he said, "Okay. So we have the Flame and the pithos. I'll IM Chiron, and he can get the gods to open shadow-travelling again. I'll shadow-travel us to Olympus, and give this stuff to Hestia."

Alice nodded, and took a deep, steadying breath.

"I'll stay here with the items while you do that," she said. "I need to rest after doing that mind thing with Phaethon."

"Okay," Nico said again. He eyed the tunnel door with unease.

"There's not going to be anyone coming through there," Alice said dismissively. "I'm pretty sure some of the tunnel collapsed behind us."

Nico rolled his eyes. "I had a feeling we'd end up trashing the place," he muttered. "Alright. Stay safe, and keep to the shadows."

"You too," Alice murmured, shifting into a more comfortable position.

The son of Hades hurried off, always making sure that he kept to the darkest corners.

Nico couldn't find any appropriately placed streams of water, and the sun was slowly yet inexorably making its way towards the horizon. In the end, he resorted to buying a prism in the gift shop.

He couldn't help but feel a sense of deja vu as he did so.

After scurrying about for a few minutes more, Nico managed to find a suitable spot to message Chiron. He set up the rainbow carefully, making use of a fading but still bright ray of sunlight that was coming in through a small window.

"O Goddess, please accept my offering," he muttered, more dropping than tossing his last drachma into the rainbow.

"Show me Chiron, at Camp Half-Blood."

The light contorted, and formed into an image. Chiron was seated behind his desk. He looked pale and far more worn than Nico had ever seen him. It was pretty clear that he hadn't slept for days.

The centaur was staring pensively into the middle distance, and he jumped at the sound of Nico's voice.

"Chiron, it's Nico. We've almost finished the quest."

Chiron looked about wildly for a moment, and then saw the Iris-Message. "Do you have the Flame?" he asked immediately.

"Yes," Nico replied. "And also… the pithos."

Chiron let out a huge sigh of relief. "Thank Olympus. I'm sorry I didn't tell you Elpis had been stolen as well, but given the circumstances, revealing any information would have been far too dangerous."

"I understand," Nico said. Then, as quickly and as succinctly as possible, he relayed the events of the last few hours.

Chiron let him talk without interruption, and when he'd finished, the centaur sat back, in his wheelchair form.

"I had a hunch that it was Rhea," Chiron muttered, talking more to himself than to Nico. "I've always thought the gods were foolish to leave her in that prison. It only made her become bitter and angry." He paused, thinking, before continuing.

"Jake, on the other hand, is more of a surprise. He always seemed a little resentful, but nothing on this level, just like…"

He paused again, and Nico was sure that Chiron was thinking of another demigod who'd betrayed the gods to help a Titan.

"Still, you sealed away Rhea as best you could," Chiron said briskly.

"With Phaethon's help," Nico supplied.

"Ah yes," the centaur mused. "I was so disappointed when he had that accident with the sun chariot, and to hear he'd come back on the darker side was saddening. But then he changed his ways! Thanks to Alice."

He shook his head. "That's quite a quest you've all been having. Now, you need to get to Olympus as quickly as possible. I'll contact Zeus, who'll contact Hades, who'll open up shadow-travelling again, and you'll be able to travel to New York in an hour."

"Thank you," Nico murmured, raising his hand to break up the IM.

"No, Nico," Chiron said, smiling purely, for the first time since that first night, when the theft had been announced. "Thank _you_."

The son of Hades just nodded, and disconnected the IM.

He got back up to Alice as quickly as possible. She was undisturbed, which was just as well, for she'd fallen asleep.

Nico sighed, and sat down. He stayed like that for half an hour or more, having his first truly peaceful moments since the quest had begun.

With fifteen minutes to go before they'd be able to travel, Nico woke Alice. She yawned and blinked blearily as he explained what was going to happen.

"So I'll bring us directly to the Empire State Building," he said. "And then we drop the items off with Hestia."

Alice shook her head darkly at the "we".

"I'll just stay in the lobby or something," she said. "I don't want to go to Olympus itself."

Nico started to argue, but he saw a very familiar expression of fixed determination on her face, and so simply shrugged in resignation.

They remained in the shadows until the time for departure came. When the hour mark arrived, Nico felt a strange sensation in the shadows around him - it was like a steel wall that he hadn't previously noticed was being raised and removed.

At last, the shadows were completely open to him.

He clapped his hands together with excitement. "Here we go!" he exclaimed.

Alice got to her feet, and took the pithos, holding it tightly. Nico grabbed the Flame lantern, and clutched it to him like it was a dying animal.

Then, holding onto Alice's shoulder, he stepped further into the shadows, and brought them home.

They appeared directly outside the Empire State Building. It was now well past nine o'clock, and the shadows around the Building were deep. Nico and Alice stepped out from one of those deep shadows carefully, keeping alert for trouble. It would, Nico knew, be very typical of a half-blood's life to get mugged at the final hurdle.

Luckily, no-one seemed to notice them, and if they did they didn't care. The two heroes almost ran into the lobby of the skyscraper.

Nico had been there before - after wars, and once with Percy on a visit to Annabeth. He knew exactly what to do.

He strode up to the guard's desk, and stood there, waiting for the man to put down his iPad. Finally, the guard looked up.

"Six-hundredth floor, please," Nico said evenly.

It was obvious that the guard recognised him, but he still had his security protocols to go through.

"Ain't no such floor, kid," he said robotically.

Nico, on the other hand, had run out of patience for such games. He brought the Flame lantern down onto the guard's desk with a loud clang.

"You see this?" he growled. "This is the Flame of Olympus, which I have just rescued from the jaws of an ancient Titan. Now, unless you want me to tell Lord Zeus that you got in my way, you're going to give me that key card right away."

He said the last line in an imperious tone, the one he usually reserved for ordering skeletons around. The guard stared at the lantern blankly for a moment, before rummaging in a drawer and pulling out the necessary key card.

"Thank you," Nico said, taking it. He turned to Alice. "So you're going to stay here?" he asked.

"Yes," she said. "I just… need some headspace."

"Okay," Nico said. "Er, stay safe, and stuff."

She smiled, confident even through her pain. "I will."

The son of Hades nodded at her, and then the guard, awkwardly, before taking the pithos and heading for the elevator.

As he got in, he didn't look back.

Ten minutes later, he paused at the entrance to the throne room of the gods. He'd managed to avoid thinking about this moment, though now he couldn't help but remember that this was the first time for him to enter the throne room on his own. What if all the gods were there? What if they decided they didn't like his face, and it was better to melt it?

As he stood there, trying to overcome his very rational concerns, a voice echoed out from the cavernous room.

"Come in, Nico."

And somehow, in some ridiculous way, Nico, upon hearing that voice, felt safer. He took a deep breath, and walked in.

He was surprised, but by no means displeased, to find that the place was almost completely empty. Every throne was vacant, even the ones for the minor gods, and in the entire room, only one god was to be found.

And that god, or rather goddess, was the one crouching by the hearth, trying to keep warm.

Nico approached slowly, still feeling a little uncomfortable. Hestia was crouched on the ground next to the hearth, which was almost stone-cold. No flames sparked, no heat blossomed, and the goddess of the hearth shivered continually.

Hestia was staring blankly into the empty hearth, but as Nico drew nearer, she looked up, and smiled, though it was almost imperceptible.

She gestured at the cold coals. "Please," she murmured. "Could you?"

Nico nodded, understanding immediately. He knelt down, putting both the Flame and the pithos on the floor. Then, he reached one hand out and touched the coals.

Hestia watched steadily as Nico drew in a breath, calming himself. He reached deep down within his consciousness, dragging out the pure Flame that he'd absorbed back in the tomb of Rhea.

Nico imagined the energy as red-hot lightning, and focussed on it. He pictured it flowing down his arm and into the coals. His muscles tightened as he felt the pure fire gather into one clump and rise out of him.

As if it had a mind of its own, the pure Flame flowed up to his shoulder, and down his arm. It flew into the coals with perfect ease and, with a spark, the coals lit once more.

The fire started slow, creeping along the coals, not more than an inch high. After a few seconds, though, it grew, becoming far brighter. So the hearth changed, so the goddess - Hestia looked far less cold and much more like her normal self.

Soon, the hearth of the gods was crackling, just like it had for thousands of years. To look at it now, one would never know that minutes before, it had been almost dead.

Finally, Nico handed Hestia the lantern and the pithos. When she took the former, a glow ran over her whole body, and she looked even stronger. The latter she set to one side carefully, near to the warmth of the fire.

The goddess looked at Nico again, and smiled. This time, it was far clearer. "Thank you," she said. "Please, rest."

The half-blood lowered himself down to the ground. He stared at the Flame for a few moments, as did Hestia. For the first time in many days, no thoughts of danger were racing through Nico's mind.

"You did well on the quest," Hestia said suddenly. "You were clever."

He bowed his head in acknowledgement.

"It was a long and difficult game you had to play to get here," she said, watching the fire. "When did you realise that Jake was the thief?"

"At the motel, when we were woken in the middle of the night," Nico replied. "I had the rest of the night to think it over, and it all just fell into place."

"Not quite all," Hestia said wryly. "After all, you still had to deal with the drama between your quest-fellows."

She waved her hand, and the smoke rising from the fire thickened. It slowly formed into an image, like an Iris Message. Nico looked at it curiously, and saw it was not merely an image - it was a recording of the conversation he'd had with Alice in the park after Jake had been "taken" by Phaethon.

"There's no nice way for me to say this," Nico heard himself say. "But… Jake is the thief."

Image!Alice stared at him in shock, and her eyes darkened with hurt.

Hestia waved her hand again, and the image disappeared. Nico was grateful. That conversation had been painful enough to go through once.

"And you played a painful game for a while," Hestia mused. "After you knew Jake was the thief, you started acting friendly to him and very unpleasant to Alice. Why was that?"

"I was trying to drive Alice and Jake apart," Nico said quietly. "I knew Jake would want her on his side, so I thought that if it looked to her like it was me and Jake against her, she'd pull away from him."

Hestia nodded. "A risky decision," she said. "A gamble. But it worked."

"Just about," Nico said darkly.

"There is no need to feel guilty," Hestia said gently. "You did what you felt was right."

Nico shrugged, staying silent. Deep down, he felt a sense that he could have tried to talk Jake around, as one half-blood of the shadows to another. If only he'd tried harder…

"Then there was that trick in Alcatraz." the goddess continued, moving swiftly along. "You'd already worked out a lot about Jake, and you managed to anticipate that he would attack Alice."

"It was kind of obvious," Nico said modestly. "There was no way Jake cared all that much about Alice, and if he was willing to betray us all, he'd be willing to attack us."

Hestia waved her hand again, and a new image formed. It was Nico and Alice again, but this time they were in the tunnel to Rhea's prison. They stood in the small alcove, next to the pile of bones, which image!Nico was carefully laying out on the ground.

"What we need is an ace in the hole," image!Nico explained. "Jake will have plans, so we have to have _more_ plans."

He finished setting out the bones, and looked at image!Alice.

"What's your plan?" she asked.

"We create a powerful illusion, one that Jake will not easily see through," image!Nico replied.

"And how do we do that?" Alice said.

The Nico in the image turned back to the bones, and smiled grimly.

"Shadow-projection," he murmured.

Hestia banished the image. Nico knew what had happened next. He'd built a hurried projection of Alice, using the bones as the necessary solid ingredient, and his powerful pure Stygian crystal for the magic. It had been the most difficult trick Nico had ever done with his powers, and it had barely worked.

"That was also a clever thing to do," Hestia said softly. She paused, and stared out into the middle distance, thinking.

Nico shifted nervously on the spot. It felt like he'd been sitting there for an age, and as much as he liked Hestia, he didn't want to run into any other gods.

"You know, when Jake Wilson first came to Olympus," Hestia said suddenly, "on a field trip earlier this year, he attempted to challenge Lady Athena to a game of chess."

Nico stared. He'd thought Jake had been clever, but that sounded more like he'd been suicidal.

"It didn't happen, of course," Hestia went on. "Luckily for him, Athena was not present that day. I, on the other hand, was.

"I heard his whispered discussion with his friends, just feet away from the hearth, and I said to him, 'If you are so eager to play games with gods, I volunteer to take your challenge in lieu of Athena.'

"He looked at me in surprise, not having even noticed my presence before. Then, he accepted my offer.

"I am not by any means as accomplished as my niece when it comes to chess, but I am also… what is it the mortals say? No pushover? In any case, we played for an hour or more, and I was surprised. I came within one move of being defeated by a mere child.

"I barely prevailed, and the loss seemed to impact Jake greatly. I remember him leaving this room, his face darkened with resentment.

"Why do I tell you all this? Because I feel it necessary to emphasise just how dangerous an opponent Jake Wilson is."

Nico nodded, considering Hestia's words.

"That makes me feel worse for not being able to save him," he muttered.

Hestia shook her head vehemently. "No, no. You shouldn't feel like that. When I played chess against Wilson, I saw a mind so utterly stubborn that it could give Lord Zeus himself a run for his money."

Nico shrugged. "Anyway, it doesn't matter much," he said. "Jake must be dead by now. There's no way he could have survived that."

"Ah, I wish that were true," Hestia said. "But I feel sure that somewhere, Jake Wilson lurks in the dark, waiting to make his next move, whatever that may be."

Nico glanced around nervously, and shivered slightly, despite the heat of the fire.

"But moving on!" the goddess said, suddenly more cheerful. "I have something for you."

Nico frowned. The odds of the meaning of that sentence being strictly good were about 50/50, and he had long ago learned that the odds met up and discussed among themselves the best ways of making Nico di Angelo miserable.

Hestia reached into a pocket of her robe, and took out a small black box, one very similar to the one that held Nico's Stygian crystal. With a slight air of reverence, she handed the box to Nico.

She gave him an encouraging nod, and he opened it.

Inside was a small square of what looked like Stygian iron. It was utterly black, and about four inches wide and long.

Nico was familiar with all things Stygian, however, and the contents of the box felt like something far more powerful.

"That," said Hestia, answering Nico's question before it had even left his lips, "is a piece of pure shadow."

The half-blood looked at her, baffled. Wasn't shadow intangible?

"You have brought pure light back to me," she went on, gesturing at the hearth. "And so I give you the gift of pure shadow."

Nico's eyes widened as he took in what she'd said. If the Flame was pure light made tangible, then it made sense for there to be a counterpart in the shadows. After all, there were two sides to every coin.

"It is a powerful substance, and a dangerous one," Hestia said. "In the wrong hands it could do terrible things, but on this quest you have proven your strength, beyond the doubts of any god."

As Nico met the goddess's eyes, he got the feeling she wasn't just talking about her own personal feelings.

"Thank you," he said awkwardly. "Er. I'll try to use it well, and, and stuff. Yeah. Thanks."

He got to his feet carefully, feeling that the meeting was over. Gingerly, he closed the box and stowed it away in a sturdy pocket.

Before he turned, however, Hestia said, "Oh, and one last thing, Nico."

"Yes, Lady Hestia?"

"Do you remember that boy you brought to camp shortly, before you went on the quest?"

"Uh, yeah, I do," Nico said. "Cyrus Wright, right?"

"Indeed," Hestia nodded. "I want to show you one last thing."

She waved her hand once more, and yet another image formed in the smoke.

This time, it looked like a live feed. In the picture was Clarisse and Cyrus. By the looks of it, Clarisse was doing one of her evening swordplay tutorials, and Cyrus was her unlucky victim/student.

Nico winced as he watched. Clarisse was known for her lack of mercy, and it was far from uncommon for her "students" to be injured.

The daughter of Ares batted away a few feeble strikes, before swooping in and disarming Cyrus with almost condescending ease. Then, she rotated, and moved to stab at Cyrus's arm.

Nico winced again as he watched the sword move inexorably towards Cyrus's arm. The younger teenager stumbled back a step, wide-eyed with fear.

A little noise from the watching campers could be heard, and a wicked grin appeared on Clarisse's face.

What happened next was the last thing that Nico di Angelo would have ever, ever expected.


	20. Epilogue

**Author's Note: I'm ba-ack!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. 'Tis all for fun.**

Rise of the Forgotten.

Epilogue

When I woke up, it felt like I'd been asleep for only a few minutes, but when I looked at my watch (which I'd left on my wrist, to put off any would-be thieves), it was almost six o'clock.

I sighed, and tried to will myself back to sleep, but it was no use. Just like yesterday morning at home (had that been yesterday? It felt like weeks), I had woken up, and that was that.

I lay there for a little while, before coming to the conclusion I usually reach when I wake up like that - if I was going to be awake, there was no point lying in bed. It did nothing except make me bored and irritable.

So, being careful not to wake anyone else up (just because I was awake didn't mean I wanted company!), I slid out of bed and began to get dressed.

It was only when I pulled on my jeans and felt a distinct lack of weight in one pocket that I realised I'd been robbed. I dug around in my trouser pocket and, sure enough, my phone was gone.

"Dammit," I cursed under my breath. Talk about getting the day off to a bad start.

Well, on the bright side, there weren't many people who could have taken it - there were exactly six possible culprits.

Deciding to wait till later to try to get the phone back, I finished dressing and slipped out, stepping over debris and rubbish as gingerly as possible.

I got out of the cabin, and took a deep breath of the fresh morning air. It seemed unlikely that anyone would be around for at least an hour, and hopefully I'd be able to use that time to get my head in order, so I started walking, heading for the lake again. There was something about water that I always found calming, though you wouldn't catch me dead actually swimming. Well, you might, but I would certainly _be_ dead.

I was almost outside of the cabin area when I heard the distinct (and distinctly ominous) sound of a footstep.

I stopped, and almost growled in annoyance, but I stayed quiet and listened. The footsteps got louder as the person who was apparently suicidal enough to annoy me before nine o'clock approached from behind.

I drew in a calming breath, and turned around to face he who walked behind.

Then I nearly had a heart attack.

Standing less than ten feet away, still wearing his leather jacket and dark trousers, was the symbol of my mythological misery.

"Morning, Cyrus," the Dark One said, the smile on his face completely cancelled out by the ominous rippling in his aura. "I was hoping I'd catch you."

**THE STORY CONTINUES**

**IN**

PIECE OF DARKNESS I - A KNIGHT OR A PAWN

_**March 1st, 2013**_


End file.
